The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story | 
|  | | | Title: | The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story | | Author: | Diane Ackerman | | Publisher: | W. W. Norton | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 04 September, 2007 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0393061728 / 9780393061727 | | List Price: | $23.95 | | You Save: | $7.66 | | Amazon Price: | $16.29 | |
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Product Description
A true story—as powerful as Schindler's List—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
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
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Customer Reviews:
• Story Could Have Been Told Better.... 09 August, 2008
This book was a disappointment. It sounded so interesting. A true war story of the Warsaw Zoo. It had potential but it fell apart. It did not flow. It was choppy and sometimes it was hard to follow, time and place. The author, I think in order to educate the reader, went off on tangents that made it even more confusing. There were some really interesting parts of this book especially Polish heritage, the war, the "Ghetto", the zoo and the animals and of course, Antonia, Jan and their family. I just think the author could have done a better job telling the story.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ALAFR9RRKEUZP
• Fascinating Subject, Badly Written 19 August, 2008
The author is not a novelist, or rather, not a very good one, and although this is nonfiction, she lays the story out in a fictional style. The information comes out in blobs, with no clear unfolding of events, and sometimes it's challenging to know where you are, and when, what's happening to the animals, or even to get a clear visual sense of the zoo, or of the people. She does not dramatize very well. The story and situation can't help but be interesting, but I wish a better writer had tackled this. (And I have no idea why the wife is featured in the title; the story is also certainly about her husband. A catchy marketing tool for female readers who buy books like these, probably).
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3GRP41MZZ5DVF
• Unearthing A Luminous Tale From A Dark Time 04 August, 2008
Any woman whose claims to fame include having a molecule named after her can certainly boast her affinity with the sciences. Indeed, Diane Ackerman, after whom "dianeackerone" takes its name, has published an enlightening body of prose about psychology, horticulture, neuroscience...and now the intimate relationship between humans and animals.
Ackerman's stunning narrative nonfiction work The Zookeeper's Wife explores the haunting paradox created by the juxtaposition of the Nazis' reverence of nature and their desire to shape the genetic destiny of the entire planet. Ackerman tells the story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, whose humanitarian efforts amidst the horrors of World War Two saved over 300 Jews. The couple sheltered escapees in the bombed-out cages and sheds of the zoo, as well as in their own villa. The book's rich and evocative language arises from Ackerman's thorough research. She discovered Antonina's untranslated memoir and supplemented this jewel of a find with other contemporary material and her own modern-day research in Poland.
This book struck me as a sparkling specimen of historical creative nonfiction. I normally prefer reading fiction; there is nothing more alluring than the prospect of getting lost in the pillowy comfort of an imagined world. But I found The Zookeeper's Wife to offer a similar escape. Her language is elegant, her imagery vivid. I found myself lost in the brutal brambles and thickets of Antonina's life, literally, behind bars in the Warsaw Zoo. I am Jewish; perhaps my personal connection to the tale enhanced my enjoyment of the work. Ackerman has found a tale that rings with hope and beauty in a context that history has taught us to perceive as as sinister and horrifying.
Animal lover or not, you will find a spot for this book in your heart, if only for the experience of Antonina's profound connection with the animals around her. Her nurturing relationship with the rabbit Wicek, and her anointing of each houseguest with an animal name, are simply charming. At times, Ackerman's impressive familiarity with her topic can become overwhelming: a great many facts and figures somewhat dilute the prose. But Antonina's story, and the graceful way Ackerman tells it, will captivate you--or, more appropriately, set you free.
by Allison Stadd
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
- Reviewed by customer ID: A23MAG8UKFL0QW
• Fantastic Book 25 August, 2008
Diane Ackerman writes a fantastic book about the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo during ww2. Yes, there are many holocaust books out there, but this one is pretty amazing. These are people who didn't have to do anything at all during the war if they didn't want to. They chose to put their lives at stake to help over 300 people escape the nazi's during the war. There are parts that are very hard to read, and parts that are very uplifting.
Great book. Plus now I want a badger for a pet.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1P4JRDBNUREV8
• Lest We Forget... 01 July, 2008
I really enjoyed this book and the photos; I learned a lot. (It should be required reading.) It's well-researched, with notes, a bibliography, and an index. Not only did it flesh out the history, the characters were interesting--the people and the animals. (I loved the badger and the carnivorous rabbit.) Then there were the Nazis; we have to remember them as well...
Btw, not long after reading it, I came across Rick Steves' Europe: Poland on PBS. He covers the WWII history with photos and film footage and visits to the Holocaust museums, along with current events and people. He visited Warsaw, Krakow, and Auschwitz. Warsaw is full of Soviet-built blocky apartment buildings--a memorial to their occupation.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3JISS7CQJF8JL
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