The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Sage Singer is a woman who is used to hiding away from the world. She hides her face behind her hair to keep people from looking at her scars and works at night in a bakery to further avoid their stares. Having lost her mother, her main social activity is attending a grief group which is where she meets an old man, Josef Weber. Josef is a quiet man, well respected by the local community to the point where no-one has a bad thing to say about him. He and Sage connect with one another and become friends. One day Josef decides to tell Sage his darkest secret, a secret about an evil past that shatters Sage's trust and reveals Weber's quest for redemption. Events soon lead Sage on a journey through her grandmother's history, a story that is filled with the darkest horrors of war, a tale that brings survival and questions about the truth. Will Sage be able to forgive and can she do as she is asked?

I used to love Jodi Picoult until her adult novels all became the same and so it had been a while since I've read one but the cover for the advanced reading copy made me curious and so I thought I'd give it a go. It even came with a ribbon which was very handy.

I'm glad I did as this is Picoult back to her best (My Sister's Keeper is still my favourite but this will be a close second).

The tale within these pages deals with a difficult issue as Picoult's writing often does. Sage has to make a choice that will have serious consequences but the right answer isn't necessarily obvious. It also looks at the horrors of war from within the eyes of a Jew imprisoned in the nightmare of WW2. This part of the book is powerful and heart breaking. Minka experiences so much loss and suffering. I'm not sure of the accuracies of Minka's experiences, as it's been a while since I last looked at this terrible part of history, but Picoult paints such a horrible picture with her words that I can only hope no-one has to suffer them again, even though I know these things still happen in the world today. Picoult deals with it all very well. It's also a reminder that those who suffered during WW2 are still dealing with the consequences today.

This book is well written. It doesn't shy away from a difficult time in the world's history. It is hard to put down. This book lingers with you after you've finished. It has a love story or two but they don't overshadow the bigger theme. It has moments that warm your heart. It has a character who betrays your trust and then redeems them self towards the end. It has compassion, anger, and a small touch of happily ever after that doesn't destroy the realism of the main events. If you can stomach a story based in the horrors of Nazi concentration camps then read The Storyteller. It's worth the time you'll spend lost in its pages.

I give it 8/10.

Title: The Storyteller
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Adult Fiction