[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”1439102775″ locale=”us” height=”500″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515EqQQgRFL.jpg” width=”321″][simpleazon-link asin=”1439102775″ locale=”us”]The Storyteller[/simpleazon-link] by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What would you pack if you were leaving home, never to return, and could carry only one suitcase? This is one of the many questions we pondered in our book club after reading The Storyteller. All of us loved this book and most, including me, couldn’t put it down. With such an innocuous title, I had no idea what to expect. I only new that the author was Jodi Picoult, so it was bound to ask deep questions regarding the gray areas of morality. The meticulously drawn characters are so memorable that they have persisted to live in my imaginings. The plot is suspenseful and heart-wrenching. The history is well-researched and shared in such a way that the horrors of the Holocaust come alive in a very personal way. We’ve all seen pictures and shuddered, but Picoult painted pictures with words that are indelibly stamped on my consciousness. The characters aren’t divided into neat little categories of good and evil, victim and perpetrator. What is forgivable? What is not? I began this book thinking that I knew the answer, but in the end, it wasn’t so simple. A remarkable book that will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend the read, especially for fans of historical fiction.

Quotes:

“The words are a flood rushing out of me; just speaking them, I am drowning” (p.36).

“If history has a habit of repeating itself, doesn’t someone have to stay behind to shout out a warning” (p. 91)?

“Repeat the same action over and over again, and eventually it will feel right” (p.120).

“That’s why we read fiction, isn’t it? To remind us that whatever we suffer, we’re not the only ones” (p. 220)?

“If you had to pack your whole life into a suitcase-not just the practical things, like clothing, but the memories of the people you had lost and the girl you had once been – what would you take” (p.270)?