The Zookeeper's Wife Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

Print PDF

For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Janusz Korczak and our BookBrowse Review of The Zookeeper's Wife.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. How does Diane Ackerman's background as a naturalist and a poet inform her telling of this slice of history? Would a historian of World War II have told it differently, and, if so, what might have been left out?
    
2. Reviews have compared this book to Schindler's List and Hotel Rwanda. How would you compare them?
    
3. Did this book give you a different impression of Poland during World War II than you had before?
    

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of W.W. Norton & Company. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.