The storyteller: a novel

✍ Scribed by Jodi Picoult

• Publisher: Simon and Schuster;Atria Books
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 299 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 1439149704

✦ Synopsis

Some stories live forever . . .

Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shame­ful secret and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths to which we will go in order to keep the past from dictating the future.

**

From Booklist

Best-seller Picoult takes on a heavy subject in her latest outing: the Holocaust. At 25, Sage Singer is scarred, both physically and mentally, by the car accident that took her mother’s life. A baker who works at night in a New Hampshire shop run by a former nun, Sage shuns almost all human contact, save for her coworkers and her funeral-director boyfriend, Adam, who is married to another woman. Sage ventures out of her comfort zone to befriend Josef Weber, an elderly retired teacher, who throws her world into chaos when he tells her that he’s a former SS officer and asks her to help him end his life. Sage, whose grandmother Minka survived the Holocaust, reaches out to the Department of Justice and is connected with Leo Stein, a charismatic attorney and Nazi hunter. Leo travels to New Hampshire to investigate Sage’s claims, which leads them to Minka, who shares a surprising connection to Josef. Based on extensive research, this is a powerful and riveting, sometimes gut-wrenching, read, in which the always compelling Picoult brings a fresh perspective to an oft-explored topic. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Picoult will tour widely with this bold moral inquiry, connecting with book clubs and making television, radio, and online appearances. --Kristine Huntley

Review

The first person accounts about what happened in the Holocaust are absolutely harrowing ... there are descriptive passages that make you catch your breath Sunday Express Jodi Picoult's new book will leave you thinking about its story for a long time ... it is an emotional and compelling tale Sun If you think you know Jodi Picoult, her latest novel will make you think again ... a powerful and unexpected climax Good Housekeeping Another great read Cosmopolitan A beautifully woven story ... the humour and characters wrap themselves around you, daring you to stop reading My Weekly Simply stunning Image magazine A very humanist affirmation of the power of stories to allow people to move forward, even if they should never forget The Lady Themes of guilt, forgiveness and justice predominate and are sharpened by the belief that forgiveness can only be asked for, and given, by those who have been harmed WI Life I will start by saying that it is very difficult for me to review this book - I often find it difficult to review my favourite books as I find it hard to truly express how much I enjoyed them. From the first page, I knew that THE STORYTELLER would become one of my all time favourites. Jodi Picoult is definitely a favourite author of mine, yet she still manages to blow me away every single time I pick up one of her books. This one was no different Steppingoutofthepage Never has a work of fiction seemed so realistic to me, all of the different stories magnificently intertwined to create a book which is truly on a new level. There are certain books that leave you bereft knowing that there is no more story to tell and this is one of them. -- Amy Waterstones Beautifully written, compelling fiction. I couldn't put it down. I'm now bereft! -- Ros Burway Books, Shropshire Picoult back to her best ... hard to put down. This book lingers with you after you've finished ... 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. -- Sarah Talbot, bookseller Impossible to put down ... This is a story that not only pulls at your heart strings but thrusts you into a world of fantasy and monsters, in the most real sense -- Katy Waterstones Chatham I've read most of Jodi Picoult's novels and this has to be one of the best. -- Emma Bedford Waterstones Never afraid of the big themes, Picoult's book is all about guilt, redemption and being true to oneself Choice magazine A romance-cum-issues-based page-turner dealing in history, its evils and the possibility of forgiveness and transformation, this is as harrowing as it is readable with powerful scenes in Auschwitz. Independent Picoult is an expert at keeping you turning the pages The Lady