Zookeeper's Wife : A War Story

The Zookeeper's Wife ($24.95), by Diane Ackerman is a war story about Jan and Antonina Zabinski, caretakers of the majestic Warsaw Zoo when Germany seized Poland in 1939. Their expertise and companionship to a vast menagerie of exotic animals makes for a fascinating read. The Zabinski's used ingenious tactics to utilize the zoo to rescue several hundred Jews imprisoned at the Warsaw Ghetto. Ackerman's writing shines with great sensitivity and moves with a riveting pace.

A true storyas powerful as Schindler's Listin which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsawand 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 inhabitantsotters, 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.

Diane Ackerman is the author of the best-selling A Natural History of the Senses, among many other books of nonfiction and poetry. She lives in upstate New York.

Publisher: W. W. Norton
Distributor: W. W. Norton
Publication Date: 09-04-2007
Pages: 288
Measurements: 8in X 6in