The Zookeeper's Wife

A War Story

De: Diane Ackerman

Narrado por: Suzanne Toren

The New York Times bestseller now a major motion picture starring Jessica Chastain.

A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, who managed to save over three hundred people. Yet their story has fallen between the seams of history.

Drawing on Antonina’s diary and other historical sources, bestselling naturalist Diane Ackerman vividly re-creates Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” responsible for her own family, the zoo animals, and their “guests”: resistance activists and refugee Jews, many of whom Jan had smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Jan led a cell of saboteurs, and the Zabinski’s young son risked his life carrying food to the guests, while also tending to an eccentric array of creatures in the house: pigs, hare, muskrat, foxes, and more. With hidden people having animal names and pet animals having human names, it’s a small wonder the zoo’s code name became “The House under a Crazy Star.” Yet there is more to this story than a colorful cast. With her exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Ackerman explores the role of nature in both kindness and savagery, and she unravels the fascinating and disturbing obsession at the core of Nazism: both a worship of nature and its violation, as humans sought to control the genome of the entire planet.

©2007 Diane Ackerman (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks America

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Ackerman's writing is viscerally evocative, as in her description of the effects of the German bombing of the zoo area....This suspenseful beautifully crafted story deserves a wide readership." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Ackerman's affecting telling of the heroic Zabinskis' dramatic story illuminates the profound connection between humankind and nature, and celebrates life's beauty, mystery, and tenacity." ( Booklist)

Boring

I was expecting so much more more from this and I was really disappointed. The story was bland and more like an encyclopedia than a story. I though there would be more with the animals and actually using Jews IN the zoo. The parts that were story like were good, but they were infrequent.

VERY GOOD

I totally enjoyed the book..... and it gave a good insight on what folks had to go throw during the war. We in America should be thankful that we have never had to have a war fought on our grounds.

The Warsaw Zoo and Keepers Suffer in WWII

Would you consider the audio edition of The Zookeeper's Wife to be better than the print version?

I have not read the print version. I preferred the audio.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Zookeepers's wife was a remarkable woman who kept her family, relatives and friends--even strangers who asked for help--safe with her level-headedness, compassion, and inner strength.

Have you listened to any of Suzanne Toren’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Moments in the book where their little boy, Rich, had to deal with things he could not understand. He reacted as a child but was obedient. He had good questions but they could not always share the real answers with him. He trusted his parents.

Any additional comments?

no.

Excellent book

What did you love best about The Zookeeper's Wife?

The guts of the characters

What other book might you compare The Zookeeper's Wife to and why?

?

What does Suzanne Toren bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

the accent was amazing

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

when the son and mother thought they were going to be shot

Any additional comments?

It was one more point of view about the Holocaust that helps me to see more into a nightmare. I liked seeing it from a Polish perspective.
I loved seeing it through the eyes of the zoo and the animals.

Warsaw--WW2

An honest assessment of Polish life during WW2. Our heroine is the wife of the Warsaw Zoo. Survival was a matter of edge, tact and luck as the Germans destroyed the city, burned the ghetto and then left.