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The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
by: Diane Ackerman

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318350943841
EAN: 9780393333060
ISBN: 039333306X
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: September 08, 2008
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Studio: W. W. Norton
Sales Rank: 297

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
the New York Times bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

When Germany invaded poland, stuka bombers devastated warsaw—and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants—otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes.

with her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her. 8 pages of illustrations.

Amazon.com Review:
Amazon Significant Seven, September 2007: On the heels of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us I picked up Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper’s Wife. Both books take you to Poland's forest primeval, the Bialowieza, and paint a richly textured portrait of a natural world that few of us would recognize. The similarities end there, however, as Ackerman explores how that sense of natural order imploded under the Nazi occupation of Poland. Jan and Antonina Zabiniski--keepers of the Warsaw Zoo who sheltered Jews from the Warsaw ghetto--serve as Ackerman's lens to this moment in time, and she weaves their experiences and reflections so seamlessly into the story that it would be easy to read the book as Antonina's own miraculous memoir. Jan and Antonina's passion for life in all its diversity illustrates ever more powerfully just how narrow the Nazi worldview was, and what tragedy it wreaked. The Zookeeper’s Wife is a powerful testament to their courage and--like Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise--brings this period of European history into intimate view. --Anne Bartholomew

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- At the zoo
This true story was irristable and carried me to the end of the book. Being an animal lover I found her bits about the animals delightful. However, the human story, while fascinating, was a bit dry in the telling.

Rating:

- A Forgotten Piece of History (to many general readers)
My sister gave me this book for Christmas, saying it was one of the best books she had read in some time. I was fascinated by her description, and started the book the next day. I finished it the next morning. I found it eminently readable and fascinating. I was a history major in college, and had no problem with what one reviewer, at least, thought of as "precious turns of phrase." In fact, I hadn't even noticed them. I would have, as I have a tendency to start rereading a paragraph when I am confused. I find (and this is the first Diane Ackerman book I have read) her prose to be very readable, perhaps not sparse or bare, but totally understandable, and it contributes to the flow (a very good flow) of the story. Time periods do, occasionally, go back and forth, but she brings a theme ... Read More

Rating:

- I am enjoying this book more than any others in recent years.
It is written well, has knowlege and insight based on true events. I highly recommend this to others.

Rating:

- bad writing
Gosh I was so excited to get started reading this book. It is a compelling, heartbreaking story but I found it poorly written. She seemed to be just writing about whatever she felt like. Was it fiction? Was it nonfiction? What parts were taken from a diary? Ahhh! I agree that another writer could have made this story so much more alive and cohesive. It is sad that this story was mangled.

Rating:

- Great read
I loved this book. I have always enjoyed stories about the
war and how people survived and help each other. I'm also a
big animal lover so I could understand caring deeping about
the animals.

Books : The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story