The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

Those familiar with Ackerman’s work will recognize the abundant descriptions she uses when describing the settings of Warsaw, the campus of the zoo, the varieties and even personalities of animals housed there, the seasonal weather conditions, the flora of the Polish countryside, the battle for Poland, the efforts of the resistance movement, the conditions of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the atrocities of the Nazis. The extensive nature of these descriptions allows the reader to have a clear and precise understanding of the conditions faced by those living through the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.

The depth and power of these descriptive passages can sometimes be difficult to bear, as they often describe scenes of violence and suffering. For example, when the Nazis bomb the zoo, Ackerman writes, “Glass and metal shards mutilated skin, feathers, hooves, and scales indiscriminately as wounded zebras ran, ribboned with blood…” (48). This description continues for several paragraphs, in language both lyrical and unsparingly precise in its observation of the damage the bombs inflict on the animals’ bodies. As disturbing as these images may be, they convey the horror of war and the importance of Jan and Antonina’s work to create and maintain a place of shelter against this violence.