Title: The Storyteller
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Category: Fiction, Historical Fiction,
Sage is woman in her mid twenties self-secluded baker. She meets an older gentleman in his 90’s at a grief counselling group, where she is coping with the death of her mother. After a stretch of time, she befriends this man and he asks her a favor. He wants her to help him die. He was a Nazi SS officer and thinks that the reason he is still living is a punishment for his choices earlier in his life. What he doesn’t realize is that Sage’s living grandmother is a survivor, having struggled and worked in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Like most of the other Picoult books I have enjoyed, this one tugs at your heart strings and makes you question your stance on the matter at hand. How I look at things, and would base a decision at the beginning of the book is vastly different than how I feel at the end of the book. She has a way of showing you the thought process of everyone in the story, that makes it hard to judge anyone. I love it because there truly is always two sides to every story.
I have always enjoyed World War 2 stories, and while this one is fiction, it is based on actual historical events. The story is so realistic. I have had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz in Poland, and it was an experience I will never forget. While reading The Storyteller, I am amazed at how vivid and true the descriptions of everything are. The story is graphic, so beware to younger readers. I remember our guide being a survivor as well. I asked her how she could walk through the prison that held her captive, and she answered: we must remember our history in order for it not to repeat.
This story, I will never forget.
If you like Jodi Picoult books, you would also like The Pact or 19 minutes
[…] love stories about world war 2 but I have never read a story that begins where the war story ends. We always view it as a happy […]