Sunday 29 June 2014

Book Review: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Title: THE STORYTELLER
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Historical Fiction                                            

Goodreads Blurb: Sage Singer befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses...and then he confesses his darkest secret—he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.


What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it murder, or justice?


My Views: This book deals with not just one, but two big issues, holocaust and forgiveness. When you pick up such issues, sometimes it is difficult to balance them. Also writing historical fiction is not easy, but Jodi Picoult has woven a very compelling tale.  My knowledge about holocaust was really limited and while picking this book I was not sure what to expect from it. But the way Jodi Picoult has written this beautiful tale is really impressive. 

t is not easy to forgive even the simplest things, then how can you forgive someone who has done such a horrendous crime. Reading the story of Minka makes you feel nauseated, saddened and horrified at the same time. It is really hard to imagine that some people can be so ruthless. And the most saddening is the plight of survivors who live their whole life with those deep scars.

There are too many stories running, but they are so beautifully woven together that you never feel like putting the book down. There are times when I felt like 'no this has never happened in real' but there are survivors for telling the truth.


The only thing that I didn't like was the ending of the book. I think if you have read Jodi Picoult's book, then it comes as something expected. Yet the book is a must read.


 For me this book was a wonderful read,though painful at times, especially when the horrors of Holocaust were described  but still worth it. I will recommend it to others too. In my opinion it is a must read.


Favourite Quotes: 


  • History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them.
  • Good people are good people; religion has nothing to do with it. 
  • That's why we read fiction, isn't it? To remind us that whatever we suffer, we're not the only ones?
  • People have to experience things that terrify them. If they don't, how will they ever come to appreciate safety?

My Rating: 5 out of 5 a must read.

4 comments:

  1. I have never read a Jodi Picoult's book.
    Maybe I should start with this one....!!!
    Enjoyed the quotes thoroughly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Start with this one you will surely love it :)

      Delete
  2. Reminds me to get back to my Jodi Picoult obsession..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am on Jodi Picoult marathon these days :)

      Delete

 

Wingardium Leviosa Copyright © 2012 Design by Ipietoon Blogger Template