The Storyteller Published by Simon and Schuster on February 26, 2013 Genres: Fiction / Family Life / General, Fiction / General, Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II, Fiction / Women
Pages: 480
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Goodreads
Reading Challenges: ICYMI ChallengeAn astonishing novel about redemption and forgiveness from the “amazingly talented writer” (HuffPost) and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult.
Some stories live forever...
Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t.
Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths to which we will go in order to keep the past from dictating the future.
Review:
The Storyteller is a historical fiction novel that tells the story of a baker whose grandmother is a survivor of the Jewish holocaust and a widower who proclaims to be a former nazi. What unfolds is the heartbreaking tale of survival. Woven into this narrative is a story that a sage grandmother wrote to survive in a very hostile and scary situation.
“Fiction is like that, once released into the world: contagious, persistent. Like the contents of Pandora’s Box, a story that’s freely given can’t be contained anymore; it becomes infectious, spreading from the person who created it to the person who listens and passes it on.”
Minka is Sage’s grandmother, and through this tale, we learn she was a writer and fluent in German. With her story, she was able to catch the ear of a German soldier who gave her a cushy, safe job when she was in the camp. He found her writing her story on the back of photographs and begged her to read it to him in his office.
When Sage is given the story, she tries to decipher clues about her grandmother’s life during this horrific piece of history. “All writers start with a layer of truth, don’t they? If not, their stories would be nothing but spools of cotton candy, a fleeting taste wrapped around nothing but air.”
When Josef confesses to Sage about who he is and what he would like her to do for him, Sage wonders why she is the one he chooses to admit to.
“If you hide long enough, a ghost among men, you might disappear forever without anyone noticing. It’s human nature to ensure that someone has seen the mark you left behind.”
The Storyteller is a story of heartache, strength, and anguish and has a twist at the end you won’t see coming. I had to read this a small amount as the content can be pretty daunting, and I did not want to give up on this story. I wanted to see how Sage would handle her conflict: Would he be prosecuted for his crimes, and would it help him die? Would Minka have to go to court and be a witness all over again? How does it end?
About Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 novels, including Mad Honey, Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page.
Picoult’s books have been translated into thirty-four languages in thirty-five countries. Four novels – The Pact. Plain Truth. The Tenth Circle. and Salem Falls – have been made into television movies. My Sister’s Keeper was a film released from New Line Cinema, with Nick Cassavetes directing and Cameron Diaz starring. Mad Honey is currently in development for a series/film. SMALL GREAT THINGS has been optioned for motion picture adaptation. Picoult also wrote five issues of DC Comic’s Wonder Woman. Picoult is the co-librettist for the stage musical adaptation of her two Young Adult novels, Picoult’s two Young Adult novels, Between The Lines and Off The Page, co-written with her daughter Samantha Van Leer, which premiered Off-Broadway in Summer 2021 and will be licensed through Music Theatre International during the fall of 2022. She is also the co-librettist of the musical BREATHE, which was inducted into the Library of Congress’s Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection; and of the musical adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak, which will play at the Coventry Belgrade and the Leicester Curve in the fall of 2023.
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