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The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story | 
 enlarge | Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $14.20
You Save: $9.75 (41%)
New (38) Used (17) Collectible (7) from $13.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 2724
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393061728
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318350943841
EAN: 9780393061727
ASIN: 0393061728
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 Fascinating subject, badly written August 19, 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).
Story could have been told better.... August 9, 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.
 Unearthing a Luminous Tale from a Dark Time August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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
 Lest we forget... July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
recommended by an actual zookeeper's wife June 30, 2008
This book was recommended to me by Suzi Hannah, Jack's wife. It is excellent. It makes history come alive, even the horrible history surrounding the holocaust. The story is obviously told with as much authenticity as possible. Any detail not known precisely is worded so you know which parts are true and which parts are only probably true. I recommend it strongly.
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