The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

"I don't know what this person did to you, and I am not sure I want to. But forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me. It's saying, You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future."
                                -Mary's advice to Sage, from the novel

This was an amazing novel, one of the author's best, in my opinion. I rate it a 5; I could hardly put it down!

The multi-layered plot was fascinating to me as the main character Sage Singer, dealing with her own grief and moral dilemma, finally hears her grandmother Minka's story of survival of the Holocaust. It becomes apparent that the excerpts of Ania's story interspersed throughout the novel are excerpts of Minka's writing, begun in her youth and continued through most of her ordeal in Nazi camps. So there is a story within a story within a story.

Many of my readers probably know historical fiction is my favorite genre. I have read other Holocaust stories that have lingered in my mind and heart. Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay, The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, Number the Stars by Lois Lenski, and, of course, The Diary of Anne Frank, to name some favorites. (Most of those are young adult fiction but powerful stories, nonetheless.)

While my husband and I were in Washington, D.C. in May, 2013, we visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and were profoundly moved by it. Semidarkness, exposed pipes in the ceiling, bars, and many photographs cast a somber mood to the point that even teenagers in school groups were quiet. The distinct path from 4th floor down to 3rd down to 2nd, made one think of being herded as the Jews and other victims had been. A quote near the end of the tour said, "Remember what you saw today." I don't know how you could forget, especially the shoe exhibit! (If you have been there, you know what I am talking about!) The reading of the novel was almost like revisiting the memorial.

Author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Weisel, has said, "For the dead and the living we must bear witness." Books like
The Storyteller surely bear witness in a powerful way!