Breakfast Book Club

The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman

Join the Breakfast Book Club for our August meeting, live and in-person! We'll be discussing The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.

Join us for Eola Road Branch's Breakfast Book Club.

We read a variety of fiction titles, mainly historical fiction, and meet once a month for a lively discussion. Stop by the 2nd floor reference desk to pick up a copy. No registration required.

For questions, please email yiota@aurorapubliclibrary.org.

Book Description:

The New York Times bestseller and major motion picture starring Jessica Chastain.

A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw―and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants―otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes.With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her (Amazon).

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