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The Zookeeper's War (Paperback)

by Steven Conte (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc (6 Oct 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184724727X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847247278
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 330,163 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
Beautifully textured and extremely well realised...a clever, inspired, insightful, tension-filled drama - Bookseller + Publisher This is an unlikely, charming and moving first novel - The Times.

Product Description
It is 1943 and each night in a bomb shelter beneath the Berlin Zoo an Australian woman, Vera, shelters with her German husband, Axel, the zoo's director. Together, they struggle to look after the animals through the air raids and food shortages. When the zoo's staff is drafted into the army, forced labourers are sent in as replacements. At first, Vera finds the idea abhorrent, but gradually she realizes that the new workers are the zoo's only hope, and forms an unlikely bond with one of them. This is a city where a foreign accent is a constant source of suspicion, where busybodies report the names of neighbours' dinner guests to the Gestapo. As tensions mount in the closing days of the war, nothing and no one, it seems, can be trusted. "The Zookeeper's War" is a powerful novel of a marriage, and of a city collapsing. It confronts not only the brutality of war but the possibility of heroism - and delivers an ending that is both shocking and deeply moving.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars A good first novel, 11 May 2009
By BookWorm "BookWorm" (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
I have mixed feelings about this novel, though on the whole my impression is favourable. It feels like a first novel, and the writer is showing great potential for later works. Whilst it's not perfect, there are some strong elements and it's very readable.

The setting is Berlin towards the end of World War II. The inhabitants face a daily struggle for survival, which doesn't improve when the bombing ends and the Soviet occupation begins. The principal characters are the director of Berlin Zoo and his Australian wife, who struggle to keep the zoo going despite food shortages, the keepers being called away to fight, and nightly bombing raids. But the zoo actually features far less than the title would suggest - it provides a useful hook to hang the story on but isn't made as much of as it could be.

The depiction of everyday life in a city that is being slowly destroyed is done really well. Conte makes the mundane interesting and gives the reader a real understanding of how people lived through those difficult times. The characters are, on the whole, interesting and well written. Conte manages to incorporate many features of late war Germany whilst remaining true to a fairly small group of core characters. There are some surprises too, particularly the ending, and the author shows himself unafraid to face up to unpleasant realities. I was impressed though by the sensitivity of his writing, conveying horror without being gratuitous.

The weaker element of the novel was the love affair between the zookeeper's wife and one of the forced labourers brought in to work at the zoo. It started out seeming like the novel's central storyline, but then petered out two thirds of the way through, and on the whole seemed pointless. The novel would have stood up without it and the plot purposes it served could have been achieved in other ways.

On the whole, this works well as a war novel focussed on civilians, and brings home the hardships faced by German citizens in the war. It doesn't pack punches and the writing is easy to read, sensitive and intelligent. Some of the plot elements don't work as well as they could, but it's not a major criticism, and this author is one to watch.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in many ways, 19 Jan 2009
By M. I. Read (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a book that works on many levels, and often surprises. The choice of location and time is one that is often avoided but actually very worthy of highlighting. The very credibility of Conte's characters also surprises. They all have their strengths and weaknesses - just as one might expect in such a turbulent time. By turns exciting, brutal and beautiful, not only did I much enjoy reading this book but I felt enlightened as well. A truly remarkable book from a first-time author (grab a first edition while you can?).
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1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, 28 Oct 2008
This novel fails on a number of levels. Conte's characters are undeveloped and unattractive and, even though they live through interesting events, their own flatness renders otherwise moving situations rather dull. Characters' behaviour is often unexplained and inconsistent, and the authentic historical detail drowns them out. There was no one to really love or even to really hate in this book and the impression given is that the author may not like people as much as he likes historical research and cheap shocks.
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This book won the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction 0 September 2008
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