The ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE

 Diane Ackerman. The ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE: A War Story. Norton, 2007. 

Our book club selection for July. Not a title I would have chosen, but well worth a read. About Nazi occupation of Poland, as told from the perspective of Antonina, the wife of Jan Zabinski, keeper of the Warsaw Zoo. Excerpts from Antonina's diary made me wish I were reading it rather than snippets. But it is also true that reader needs the context supplied by the journalist writer's research into the people who come into the family's life, including those who caused such destruction of the animal and human lives. Jan is working with the Polish Resistance, the Underground, while Antonina looks after the children and the guests hiding in plain sight or not, amongst the regular staff working in the zoo. Details of the revolt and massacre in the Warsaw Ghetto. Glimpses into the horrendous uncertainty of those trying to survive under a murderous regime. I was happy to learn more of the Polish details and customs, of the good people like Antonina, a Catholic, helping out Jewish neighbours simply because it was the right thing to do. I could not help thinking of the people living under similar conditions today, in Gaza, in the USA, pursued by government forces, incarcerated without rights, shipped elsewhere to die.