The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

The Storyteller

By Jodi Picoult

Genre: Historical Fiction, WWII, Holocaust, Contemporary, War

Release Date: February 26, 2013

Pages: 461

My Rating:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

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, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and 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. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths we will go in order to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the future.

My Thoughts:

This book was chosen for the book club I’m in and at first I wasn’t excited to read it because I’m not a big historical fiction fan. That being said, I absolutely adored this book and loved this new twist on a World War II story. It was thought-provoking and left you with a lot to think about.

Picoult did an amazing job at showing you what a thin line between right and wrong can be. The character of Sage wasn’t my favorite, but her story arc made up for my beginning experience of her. She was a loner who really didn’t have anyone and by the end, she had friends and was more open with herself. I had a hard time deciding how I felt about Josef - on one hand, he was this sweet old man who did all this stuff for his community but on the other hand, he had done all of these horrible things in the past. I also enjoyed the character of Leo but didn’t like that the relationship element was added it. It felt a little forced. Minka’s story was a little long and I felt it could have been condensed but it was heartbreaking.

Overall, I highly recommend this book and it’s a book you won’t stop thinking about for a while after you read it. This was my first book by Picoult and I will be seeing what else she has written!