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from the heat, followed by silence. The thought of that would be an eerie scene for a film. Consider this excerpt from chapter six:

"Glass and metal shards mutilated skin, feathers, hooves, and scales indiscriminately as wounded zebras ran, ribboned with blood, terrified howler monkeys and orangutans dashed caterwauling into the trees and bushes, snakes slithered loose, and crocodiles pushed onto their toes and trotted at speed. Bullets ripped open the aviary nets and parrots spiraled upward like Aztec gods and plummeted straight down, other tropicals hid in the shrubs and trees or tried to fly with singed wings. Some animals, hiding in their cages and basins, became engulfed by rolling waves of flame. Two giraffes lay dead on the ground, legs twisted, shockingly horizontal. The clotted air hurt to breathe and stank of burning wood, straw, and flesh. The monkeys and birds, screeching infernally, created an otherworldly chorus backed by a crackling timpani of bullets and bomb blasts. Echoing around the zoo, the tumult surely sounded like ten thousand Furies scratching up from hell to unhinge the world."

As you can see, Ackerman evokes powerful imagery without mawkishness or sentimentality. It just is. Allowing the readers to cull their own conclusions, one of the reasons this book works is because the speaker is not trying to force emotion. Of course these were sad times. Readers know that and don't need to be told. She also has memorable images littered throughout her prose, making the book a delight to read. There is also, as one can see from the above excerpt, a natural music to her prose, and that, mixed with the evocative imagery, leaves one with thoughts to ponder afterwards.

Well-researched, the book is also accompanied not only with a bibliography, but also several pages of photos, where we can see the couple nursing a bird back to life, polar bears in their cages, elephants, hyenas, as well as other animals that dwelled there. With the help of their secret underground passage, Ackerman shows a world that existed in secret, their daily activities, and how they managed to remain out of sight throughout that time, but also the lives-both human and not-who were affected.

The Zookeeper's Wife is a good book to seek out for those interested in World War II Warsaw as well as one in search of that artistic expression of nature, human nature, and zoology. But most of all, Ackerman shows us that connection-how humans, like animals, must adapt to survive. I recall watching a documentary where a Jewish man speaks of his time in a concentration camp, talking of how he was forced to dump bodies into a large, overgrown pit. How can one species wantonly destroy another? One must adapt to survive-and after a while one gets used to it. One must, if it means one more added second to life. We are, after all, animals.

Learn more about this author, Jessica Schneider.
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