THE STORYTELLER

by Jodi Picoult
 
I’m always up for a good Jodi Picoult book when I need something easy to read on vacation, or after reading something challenging. (This time it was Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow). Although this one fit the bill in terms of a gripping story told with her trademark flair, the subject matter made it much harder to digest than Picoult’s usual fare. (Which, by the way, is called “child peril lit.”)
 
The Storyteller is about the Holocaust, and it is graphic.  I in no way want to discourage anyone from reading it as I think it is very well done. But I would have chosen the moment to read it more carefully, if I had known what I was getting into.
 
The novel reveals the intertwined lives of a present day reclusive young baker who discovers that the old man she knows from her grief group is a Nazi, and her grandmother who survived WWII as a young Jewish girl in Poland.  The story is incredibly well crafted and moving, but the disturbing content hits an all-time high in the Picoult oeuvre. (Lily)