How does Diane Ackerman's background as a naturalist and a poet inform her telling of this slice of history? Would a historian of World War II have told it differently, and, if so, what might have been left out?Ģ. "The Zookeepers Wife is a groundbreaking work of nonfiction,"said selection committee member Mark Kurlansky, "in which the human relationship to nature is explored in an absolutely original way through looking at the Holocaust." Kathleen Dean Moore, the committee's chairperson, said: "A few years ago, 'nature' writers were asking themselves, How can a book be at the same time a work of art, an act of conscientious objection to the destruction of the world, and an affirmation of hope and human decency? The Zookeeper's Wife answers this question."ġ. Norton) has been selected to receive the 2008 Orion Book Award, which is conferred annually to a book that deepens our connection to the natural world, presents new ideas about our relationship with nature, and achieves excellence in writing. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants-otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes-and keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her.ĭiane Ackerman's The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story (W. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital.
Another dozen guests hid inside the Zabinski villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw-and the city zoo along with it.
The true story of how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.
0 kommentar(er)
