Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller introduces us to Sage
Singer, a baker. She works nights hiding her scarred face, her loneliness, and
the memory of her mother’s death. In grief counseling group she meets Josef
Weber, a 90 year-old man, who becomes a friend. And then he asks her to help
him die, because he was a Nazi.
Sage’s journey begins. She meets Leo, a man working for the
USA department that deals with Nazi criminals. With Leo, she interviews her own
grandmother and hears her tale of a happy life that was destroyed – surviving
the concentration camps, enduring brutality, and seeing a best friend shot.
Sage had no idea about her Jewish legacy. She questions ” punishment and
justice, forgiveness and mercy.”
Cover blurb – In this searingly honest novel, Picoult
gracefully explores the lengths we will go in order to protect our families and
to keep the past from dictating the future.
It is obvious that Picoult did a lot of research for this
book and she indeed presents a brutal yet honest tale with characters that ring
true. She treats the subject with respect.
P. 8 “Loss is more than death, and grief is the gray
shape-shifter of emotion.” The Storyteller is a powerful story
that moves between the past and present, and brings rich characters to life,
even as they face death.
