The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
by Ackerman, Diane
- Used
- Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Good/No Dust Jacket
- ISBN 10
- 0393354253
- ISBN 13
- 9780393354256
- Seller
-
Eucha, Oklahoma, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
8.5" x 5.5", 368 pages. Good condition, some curling to covers, text clean. No crease to spine. Jan and Antonina Zabinski, christian zookeepers in World War II occupied Warsaw, Poland, horrified by Nazi racism, capitalized on the Nazi obsession with rare animals in order to save over three hundred doomed people. Poland, 1939-1945. Our book number 19051.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [343]-349) and index
Reviews
On May 20 2017, a reader said:
"One of the most remarkable things about Antonina was her determination to include play, animals, wonder, curiosity, marvel, and a wide blaze of innocence in a household where all dodged the ambient dangers, horrors, and uncertainties. That takes a special stripe of bravery rarely valued in wartime"
The Zookeeper's Wife is the eleventh book by American author, Diane Ackerman. It is non-fiction, but often reads like a novel, a plain narrative with spurts of lush descriptive prose, for example: "In a country under a death sentence, with seasonal cues like morning light or drifting constellations hidden behind shutters, time changed shape, lost some of its elasticity, and Antonina wrote that her days grew even more ephemeral and 'brittle, like soap bubbles breaking'"
It tells the story of Antonina Zabinska and her husband, Director of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan Zabinski. When Poland is occupied by the Nazis in 1939, the animals that aren't killed during bombing raids are stolen by Berlin zookeepers, and Jan and Antonina need something else to keep them busy. As the zoo cycles through different legitimate incarnations (pig farm, fur farm), the one business that is soon a constant, very much behind the scenes, is the concealment of Jews trying to escape the Ghetto and Nazi persecution.
After initial descriptions of the time before occupation, the bulk of the story tells of the Guests that passed through the Zabinski's Villa, both human and animal, with all their quirks, traits and oddities. Sometimes the text does get a bit bogged down in details (insect collections, sculpture, extinct species and back breeding), but the ingenuity of these brave people is amazing, and their generosity is truly uplifting. As an officer in the Home Army, and very active in the Resistance, Jan is often absent an it is up to Antonina to keep things running smoothly, and facilitate the passage of some three hundred people to safety.
"In prewar days, the villa had harboured more exotic animals, including a pair of baby otters, but the Zabinksis continued their tradition of people and animals coexisting under one roof, over and over welcoming stray animals into their lives and an already stressed household. Zookeepers by disposition, not fate, even in wartime with food scarce, they needed to remain among animals for life to feel true…"
Ackerman's extensive research is apparent on every page, as well as in the 21 pages of notes on the chapters, the 7-page bibliography and the comprehensive index. She portrays Jan as cool under pressure, demanding and critical, while Antonina comes across as clever and intuitive, but they are hard to connect with, perhaps because Ackerman had to base her tale on diaries and notes. It will be interesting to see what Hollywood does with this tale. A fascinating true story.
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Details
- Bookseller
- The M.A.D. House Artists (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 28025
- Title
- The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
- Author
- Ackerman, Diane
- Illustrator
- Bachman, Barbara M.
- Format/Binding
- Soft Cover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- No Dust Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Reprint
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0393354253
- ISBN 13
- 9780393354256
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- USA
- Date Published
- 2017
- Keywords
- Jews, Poland, Warsaw, Holocaust, World War II, 1939 -1945, Zookeepers, Zoo Animals, Polish Underground, Polish Resistance
- Size
- 8.5" x 5.5"
Terms of Sale
The M.A.D. House Artists
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives not as described or damaged.
About the Seller
The M.A.D. House Artists
Biblio member since 2011
Eucha, Oklahoma
About The M.A.D. House Artists
The M.A.D. House Artists is located in our home on beautiful Grand Lake in Oklahoma. We are so rural even Google does not know where we are. Call for Directions. The M.A.D. House Artists have amassed a large inventory from private collections, personal libraries, and public library purges. It is our strong feeling that these books should be available for reading, rather than shredding and recycling as grocery bags. Our collection is eclectic and ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, but so do our reading tastes. If you do not see your book listed, please feel free to contact us, as there are many more not yet listed, and more are added daily. Visitors are welcome, and encouraged to call for directions.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....