The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

This non-fiction book, based on the meticulous journals of Antonina, wife of the zookeeper in Warsaw, is easily read but not easily forgotten. The family managed to stay in the house on the city zoo property, through the zookeeper Jan's connections and his ability to convince authorities to keep the zoo operating in various forms including as a vegetable garden and a fur ranch and in doing so, they managed to save 300 people and help them make their way out of the ghetto to safety. Although Christian, they saw no difference in people based on their religion and put their own lives in jeopardy to care for Jewish Poles.

But the book is much more than a record of the family's life on the zoo grounds. Jan was an active member of the Polish underground, and Ackerman documents the activities of the Jews trapped in Poland and earmarked for the Nazi's most brutal treatment. She tells of an underground high school, a university and a hospital operating in the ghetto; she reveals the ways that people were able to move in and out of the ghetto; and how messages and supplies were sent back and forth between the ghetto and the Polish government in exile in London. There is also a wealth of information on the Nazis' attempts to recreate various extinct northern European animals that they considered properly Aryan.

Although I have read much about the Holocaust, this intimate portrait of life in Warsaw instilled admiration in me for the Poles--their history, their culture, and the devastation the Nazi's wreaked on Warsaw. And then, in what should have been their liberation at the end of the war, the Allies stood by while Russia pushed into Warsaw and continued the oppression of this proud people.

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

This third novel by Norwegian Petterson was listed on the Ten Best Books of the year by The New York Times, and since a former colleague had recommended it highly, I decided I better read it. And I was not disappointed. The characters are interesting and finely drawn; the action circles around past events; and the writing is outstanding.

The main character, Trond, is 67 years old and has bought an isolated cabin to live in. The chance meeting with a character from the past living in a cabin nearby, causes the narrator to think back to events in the summer of 1948 in an isolated area of Norway, near the Swedish border, that shaped his life. This is a coming-of-age novel as they should be written--we see the transformation from boy to man through a series of events as he thinks back and realizes their significance. The events involve his family and a neighbouring family, as well as things that happened during the Nazi occupation of Norway.Emotions and feelings between characters are beautifully conveyed through actions. Although I would class this as a "man's book" (defined by a reviewer on CBC as one that doesn't mention upholstery or soft furnishings!!) I found it lyrical and lovely--a far cry from The Road, that other "man's book" that I could barely finish.

This novel made me think about how difficult it must be to convey the author's unique style when you translate it into another language. I looked at the blurb and discovered that Anne Born, the translator, is a poet. It shows.