Synopsis:
Sage Singer is a baker, a loner, until she befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses—and then he confesses his darkest secret – he deserves to die because he had been a Nazi SS guard. And Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. How do you react to evil living next door? Can someone who's committed truly heinous acts ever atone with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And, if Sage even considers the request, is it revenge…or justice? (from http://jodipicoult.com/the-storyteller.html)
If you are like me who until now wonders how Germans were “charmed” by Hitler or why many youth have joined the Hitler Youth group during the time leading to WW2 , but do not have the high intellect (or patience) to read on books that offer the psychological, sociological or political analyses of those times, this book could provide you an insight on what was happening in Germany during that time and what might have been running in the minds of the German that time. Although the story is fictional the historical details were well researched by the author (details of research can be found in http://jodipicoult.com/the-storyteller.html).
Don’t get me wrong, I am not neo-Nazi or anti-Semitic. I have just wondered if I was a German during that time, what would I have done? Would I have secretly helped Jews or blindly support the Nazis? It would be very easy to say today “Of course, I would secretly help the Jews!”. But as Josef, a character in the story have said, sometimes we would be surprised on what we can do.
It is on this same line of thinking that I have always wondered that if I was a Jew and was alive during the time that Jesus preached in Jerusalem, would I have believed him and proclaim him as my Savior? Or would I be one of those shouting “Crucify him!”. Again, (if you are a Christian today) it would be an immediate “Of course I would believe Jesus and accept him as my Savior”.
As they say, don’t judge a person, who had never walked on his shoes.
Good read. Bookmarked and waiting for more.
ReplyDelete