Book Review: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Title: The Storyteller

Author: Jodi Picoult

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton [Hachette India]

Pages: 480 

Price: Rs 695

Genre: Fiction / Historical Fiction 

Rating: 8/10

Format: Paperback

About the Book [from the blurb]

Sage Singer has a past that makes her want to hide from the world. Sleeping by day and working in a bakery by night, she kneads her emotion into the beautiful bread she bakes.

But when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Josef Weber, a quiet man old enough to be her grandfather, and respected pillar of the community, she feels that finally, she may have found someone she can open up to.

Until Josef tells her the evil secret he's kept for sixty years.

Caught between Josef's search for redemption and her shattered illusions, Sage turns to her family history and her own life for answers. As she uncovers the truth from the darkest horrors of war, she must follow a twisting trail between betrayal and forgiveness, love and revenge. And ask herself the most difficult question she has ever faced - can murder ever be justice? Or mercy?

My thoughts:

To begin with, it is a big book, which deals with the subject of forgiveness woven around the Holocaust. Though I have only read [and loved] ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ by Jodi Picoult, yet I feel with this book she has attempted a major feat. Writing historical fiction cannot be easy. There are many things to consider – the factual correctness, the characterizations, the story graph, keeping the readers glued; in no way it could be a small feat.

On the face of it, Sage is the main protagonist of this book. A recluse by nature, she is drawn inside her shell by the ghosts of her past. A baking job ensures she works through nights. In her self-pity mode, she is also involved with a married man because she feels she does not deserve better, and this could be her only chance at love. Sage is part of a group therapy class, where she befriends a nonagenarian Josef Weber. A respected figure of town, Sage feels that in Josef she has found a friend who understands her.

But things take a surprising turn when all Josef confides in her about his role in the Holocaust and asks her to help him end his life. Since Sage is a Jew, Josef believes that it will be his redemption from the several crimes he committed during Holocaust as a Nazi SS guard.

Sage also has a paternal grandmother Minka who is a Holocaust survivor. Minka’s story, in fact, is the central part of this book. While Josef gives an account of his role in the Holocaust [perpetrator’s perspective], Minka’s story offers a victim’s experience through those terrible times. This book delves into the psyche of the perpetrator; what made them do what they did, how so many men went about systematically killing fellowmen. The nature of crime is so inhuman that sometimes it feels that it really never happened, but there are survivors to tell the disturbing stories of those horrifying times. Minka’s story will unsettle you, even move you to tears for the sheer helplessness of the situation.

Once you read Minka’s story, Sage’s character feels frivolous. I felt Sage was too caught up in self-pity. Sage eventually finds love in Leo, the Deputy Chief of Human Rights and Special Prosecutions, who she teams up with to bring Josef Weber to book; but that looks very convenient for a happy ending.

There is a third story that runs almost parallely with Sage’s and Minka’s stories. It is an allegorical story created by Minka - of Ania, her baker father and a monster [a bloodsucking upiory] - which in a way is a reflection of her own life.

There are portions which may drag for a bit but trust me, your patience will pay off. It took me a couple of pages to warm up to the story, [and though I am not 100% happy with the ending] yet the book was certainly worth reading. I will recommend it to others too.

Here are a few lines quoted from the book:

“That’s the paradox of loss: How can something that’s gone weigh us down so much?”

“He listened so carefully that it made me forget that outside there were guards abusing prisoners and people being gassed to death and men pulling their bodies from the shower rooms to stack like wood in the crematoria. When I was reading my own work, I got lost in the story, and I could have been anywhere….”

“Sometimes all it takes to become human again is someone who can see you that way, no matter how you present on the surface.”

“If you lived through it, you already know there are no words that will ever come close to describing it.

And if you didn’t, you will never understand.”

Review Book courtesy: Hachette India

Image source: GoodReads

Book Review: My Name is Parvana by Deborah Ellis

Title: My Name is Parvana

Author: Deborah Ellis

Publisher: Hachette India

Pages: 216

Price: Rs 299

Genre: Literary Fiction / Young Adult

Rating: 10/10

Format: Paperback

About the Book [from the blurb]

Close down your school... or you will pay the price. Close down your school or we will kill you.

Locked away by American military soldiers in Afghanistan, Parvana refuses to talk to her captors. Her silence only baffles and angers those in charge, leading them to question the innocence of this young silent rebel, snatched from the ruins of a bombed-out school. Their only clue is her diary and a series of names in it that they hope will help them figure out what happened.

Through Parvana's story, you will see how lives are shattered and scattered like shrapnel in a country devastated by war. You will encounter people waging their own crushing battles: a single mother striving against vicious tradition to run a school for girls; young girls growing up with grimy realities and dreams of free skies; and students struggling to get an education that will give them wings.

Most of all, you will meet, and never forget, a feisty girl who believes that even in the darkest hours of death and destruction, hope shines forth like the desert sun.

My Thoughts:

‘My Name is Parvana’ is the story of a brave, intelligent and spirited teenage girl Parvana. The story is set in war-torn Afghanistan, after Taliban’s rule.

 What I loved the most about this book is the way the story has been laid out for the reader. It starts at a point that instantly hooks you. This teenage girl has been picked up by the American soldiers from an abandoned, bombed-out school with an old bag which contains a half-eaten copy of ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird’ and a battered notebook. Nothing makes her say anything. The story moves back and forth in Present and Past until it merges beautifully at the end, and the story takes complete shape.

Parvana’s mother, an ex-journalist, makes educating young girls her goal in life, completely supported by her own daughters. Though the Taliban rule has come to an end, we find that life has not gone back to normalcy. There are people who are still stuck to those philosophies or are afraid to anger the Taliban. Once accosted by some villagers in the market, Parvana tells them fearlessly “you are all living in the past”.

Parvana is an extraordinary girl. She is headstrong and gritty. She dreams of becoming an architect. “What she really wanted was to build things – things people could live in that would make them feel safe and happy...”

She is extremely imaginative. When she is held captive by the soldiers in a cell, her fertile imagination weaves up a lot of situations like she comes up with an idea of printing poems or chapters of a novel on packaging so that soldiers could read the entire book.

Parvana is independent, compassionate, sensitive and strong-willed. She is confident and taking control of her situation comes naturally to her. “I was born to be in charge.”

It is difficult to imagine life of people in war-afflicted areas, how their hopes, their dreams, their normal lives get shattered every day. Each day is a struggle, even for something which should be every person’s right – education.

“Her life had gone from battle to battle, and she was never ever sure that the future would not be terrifying.”

“Afghanistan had so many armies now -the foreigners, the Taliban, the people who hated both the Taliban and the foreigners, the drug people and the people who had their own private armies just because they could.”

This is the story of how Parvana and her family brave threats, challenging circumstances and even resistance from the villagers to fulfill their dream of educating girls, because they truly believe that only education has the power to transform their circumstances. They also embrace anybody who reaches out to them, making them their companions in the journey of life. Despite the setting, it is certainly a story of hope. Because there are people who care; no matter what are the hurdles, the world is still a good place to be in.

This book is meant for Young Adults and therefore it does not dwell too much into the gore and bloodshed. The book focuses on lives and circumstances.

It is a deeply moving book, and one of the best I have read in a long time. All I would say is you have to meet Parvana. You would not forget her. You would not want to.

And for me, I am going to read the much talked about ‘the Breadwinner series’ by the author.

Note: The text in italics have been quoted from the book.

Review Book courtesy: Hachette India

Image source: Hachette India