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The Zookeeper's Wife

Diane Ackerman

Start date: April 15, 2015

Finish date: May 15, 2015

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What Members Thought

Nov 09, 2019 marianne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

On the one hand, this is a very interesting account about the wartime history of the Zabinskis, a husband-wife team who ran the Warsaw zoo and managed to save hundreds of people’s lives during WWII. It’s also an account of various interesting tidbits of zoological interest and family anecdotes, delivered in Ackerman’s signature awe-ridden prose. For this reason, it regularly adopts a whimsical tone describing the natural history elements and various other “cuter” moments; anecdotes about their s On the one hand, this is a very interesting account about the wartime history of the Zabinskis, a husband-wife team who ran the Warsaw zoo and managed to save hundreds of people’s lives during WWII. It’s also an account of various interesting tidbits of zoological interest and family anecdotes, delivered in Ackerman’s signature awe-ridden prose. For this reason, it regularly adopts a whimsical tone describing the natural history elements and various other “cuter” moments; anecdotes about their son’s various pets, pet names for the folks they were hiding in their zoo, etc. This may have been exaggerated by the audiobook reader’s choice of tone, but being familiar with Diane Ackerman’s books, this seems in line with her writing style. These fluffier parts seemed a little over the top for a wartime story. It was a little odd.

Still, I learned a lot about human beings, animals, zookeeping and the war. The most poignant thing I remember came towards the end, when Ackerman is describing what the profile of a hero looks like:

“Rescuers tended to be decisive, fast-thinking, risk-taking, independent, adventurous, openhearted, rebellious, and unusually flexible—able to switch plans, abandon habits, or change ingrained routines at a moment's notice. They tended to be nonconformists, and though many rescuers held solemn principles worth dying for, they didn't regard themselves as heroic.”

I finished this book several weeks ago, and I’m still thinking about this. It’s prompted me to consciously try to be more flexible in life!

As a side note, I’ll admit I was perplexed by the title - the Zookeeper’s Wife. It seemed oddly antiquated. If Ackerman’s point was to make Antonina Zabinski the central figure of the story, why assign her the title of Wife? She was many other things. I also felt strongly that the book was about both Jan and Antonina. Though the information was largely built on her journal, Jan played a central role in the book and risked his life many times over to save loved ones and strangers alike. They were a great team, even if things were not perfect between them. ...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Tanya rated it liked it

Shelves: format-audiobook, 2016, challenge-2016-colapub

This was an interesting story. I had expected it to be a bit different in format though and so it took some time for me to get into the people this story was about. I found the details interesting, and it will make a good movie. It did take me two different attempts to finally make it through the book. I listened to this as an audiobook and that may have made the difference.

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Aug 11, 2010 Daisy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: eastern-europe, poland, ww2, audio-library-books

How a woman with an instinctive understanding of animals uses it to live through WW2 in Warsaw, Poland and to help others survive.
Uneven, hard to listen to because of some subject matter, some dry, tedious sections, and the narrator's odd intonations and stresses. Some parts of this book held my interest, but in general I couldn't wait till it was over. ...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: war, history, nonfiction, biography

A zookeeper and his wife hide Polish Jews in their zoo during the Nazi occupation. I liked the information presented about Poland during WWII. This is a part of world history that I knew little about. The book seemed to jump around, from the Jewish people to zoo animals.

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Mar 31, 2017 Sk888888 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, ww-ii, challenge, atw

Could have been about a hundred pages shorter... just sayin. The author would go off on a tangent and my eyeballs would roll up inside my head. Book was o.k., I'm just glad it's done. ...more

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