by Jessica Schneider

Created on: June 16, 2009

I have to say that I was pleasantly pleased after having read Diane Ackerman's latest non-fiction book, The Zookeeper's Wife. This is my first time reading anything of hers, and I was also surprised to find that she has talent as a poet. I say 'surprised' because more often than not, those who claim to have written poetry really don't succeed at it very much at all, but Ackerman, who has a nature bent to her work, possesses both literary quality and a good sense of historical and scientific background, which makes this book work. The story is about a Polish married couple named Jan and Antonia Zabinski who also run the zoo in Warsaw. Set during World War II, what we get is not just a war story of Jews hiding in the zoo from the Nazis, but also we are shown how the animals were affected during this period.

The book, whose focus is on Antonia (wife to Jan-the zookeeper) works to not only take care of the animals, but also hide Jews in the animal cages. Creating a safe underground with secret passages and code words to avoid any suspicion, the people who are in hiding receive animal names, and we are shown how the couple managed to pull it off: shopping in small quantities to not attract attention, and speaking in disguised terms like, 'go feed the lions' (which really refers to the 300 people they managed to smuggle in and keep hidden). Taken primarily from Antonia's diaries, readers are also shown glimpses into their marriage: a husband who often is critical of his wife, yet surprises her with praise, informing others how he thinks highly of her abilities. Yet as a man he is dutiful and protecting. Likewise, Antonia is forced not to let her fears dominate.

Despite the couple's knowledge that any Poles discovered hiding Jews would result in death, they push through their anxieties and tend to the matters at hand. We also learn how Jan and Antonia helped the people during this time by obtaining false documents, and how they helped their guests "look Aryan" though dying their hair blonde or showing them how to speak and move in certain ways as a means for not attracting attention. (In one funny scene Antonia is attempting to dye a family's dark hair with peroxide-all which turns red afterwards).

The Zookeeper's wife takes on a new angle about the war: through Ackerman's prose, she vividly describes the aftermaths of the bombs, the frightened animals dying, and most memorably, the metal cages screeching as they are pulled apart-having melted and grown distorted

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