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The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story |  | Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $1.39
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You Save: $13.56 (91%)
New (64) Used (253) Collectible (3) from $1.39
Seller: Gulfstream Goodwill
Rating:  182 reviews
Sales Rank: 2787
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 039333306X
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318350943841
EAN: 9780393333060
ASIN: 039333306X
Publication Date: September 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780393333060 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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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 Zookeepers 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 Zookeepers 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
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 Warsawâand 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 inhabitantsâotters, 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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 182
 Not a boring, nor a gruesome true tale August 28, 2010
What an excellent story. For me, a very different perspective on the war and the abuse of the Jewish people.
 A great story, horrible writing!!! August 14, 2010
A Happy Mommy (New Jersey)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really wanted to love this book. It was a cross between a novel and a nonfiction book. The author should have picked one of those and stuck with it. This story is so incredible, so wonderful, but written by this author, it's all wrong! A good book to take out of the library! I wish I had!
Interesting Subject Matter, Terrible Construction August 12, 2010
Emily
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The factual story that The Zookeeper's Wife intends to tell is interesting and gives the author potential for an amazing book. Unfortunately, Ackerman has created a wordy, often boring book. As someone else commented, it seems like she tried to stuff all of her research into the book, taking away from what should be the heart of the book as a result. When the prose is not reading like a boring non-fiction essay, it's self indulgent with flowery sentences/similes that don't make sense. While there is a brilliant story here that needs to be told, this book does not do it justice. I'm shocked by the critical acclaim being heaped on an author who was clearly out of her depth.
slogging at times August 6, 2010
S. Gast (Tucson, AZ)
Love this book but I found at times I was skipping whole paragraphs and yes, even a page or two as the author told in minute detail some thought or piece of information. This, at times was tedious. Still, the things I learned about the occupation and the complex lives of all the participants made up for the hard reading. I would like to see an abridged or condensed version of the same book to see what a less wordy author could do with the same material.
 If you have post holocaust relatives July 25, 2010
nate apfelbaum (Laguna Woods, Ca, US)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've grown up with the stories of living through the holocaust by my closest relatives who made it to America. This book was recommended by a therapist and I found it insightful and heartbreaking. If you do not know anyone who experienced this time in Europe I highly recommend you read this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 182
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