The Zookeeper's Wife was incredibly moving, as we learned the horrors of the occupation of Warsaw and the bravery of so many as they outfoxed the Nazis. I loved this book. The author,Diane Ackerman and Antonina, the zookeeper's wife, both poetic writers, recounted many comic tales of the furry animals and memorable people to add some levity and magic as in this passage about Antonina's son, Rys and his pet arctic hare named "Wicek." At first, whenever Rys sat down to dinner, Wicek draped himself along Rys' foot like one furry black slipper, instinctively crouching as hares do in arctic windstorms. Then, as Wicek grew large and muscular, he bounced around the house like hard rubber, and at meals hopped from the floor straight onto Rys' lap, thrust his front paws onto the table, and grabbed Rys' food. Naturally vegetarian, arctic hares may resort to tree bark and pinecones at times, but Wicek preferred stealing a horse cutlet or slice of beef, and bouncing away to devour it in a shadowy corner.

As the Nazis' killings increased, Antonina noted in her diary, Why do animals sometimes subdue their predatory ways in only a few months, while humans, despite centuries of refinement, can quickly grow more savage than any beast?