The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story - Diane Ackerman

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

By Diane Ackerman

  • Release Date: 2008-09-17
  • Genre: History
Score: 4
4
From 281 Ratings

Description

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.
After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these "guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder that the zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy Star." Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story—sharing Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife," while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism. Winner of the 2008 Orion Award.

Reviews

  • The upcoming movie might be better!

    2
    By Scrbblchmp
    Diane Ackerman is really not writing an interesting true story about the Warsaw Zoo and it's zookeepers hiding and protecting Jews during WWII. She is documenting the lives of those rescued. I'm sure her efforts will help in the future as the stories of the Holocaust become impossible to believe. Just too much detail on the lives of the rescued for my taste. It disrupts the narrative.
  • Zookeepers Wife

    3
    By Boulevard 2010
    Good historical view. Slow moving and ended rather abruptly.

Comments