Sage Singer has a past that makes her want to hide from the world. Sleeping by day and working in a bakery by night, she kneads her emotion into the beautiful bread she bakes.
But when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Josef Weber, a quiet man old enough to be her grandfather, and respected pillar of the community, she feels that finally, she may have found someone she can open up to.
Until Josef tells her the evil secret he's kept for sixty years.
Caught between Josef's search for redemption and her shattered illusions, Sage turns to her family history and her own life for answers. As she uncovers the truth from the darkest horrors of war, she must follow a twisting trail between betrayal and forgiveness, love and revenge. And ask herself the most difficult question she has ever faced - can murder ever be justice? Or mercy?
I'm really not sure how to do this book anywhere near justice. I thought I had reached my limit with Me Before You ~ Jojo Moyes, but The Storyteller has even exceeded that.
You meet baker, Sage Singer in her workplace 'Our Daily Bread', it sounds a wonderful café, owned and run by an ex-nun and the barista speaks only in haiku! Sage likes working nights, staying in the shadows, as she has extreme self confidence issues about scars she has after she was involved in a tragic car accident.
The only place she seems to have any interaction with the outside world is the grief group she attends to help deal with the loss of her mother.
There she meets Josef Weber...and her life will be changed forever.
In true Picoult style, the story is told from the different perspectives of all the main characters. Again this gives the wonderful depth and diversity needed to draw you into the story, which it really does.
I loved all of the characters, especially Minka, Sage's grandmother. The depictions of her experiences during the holocaust were the most shocking things I have ever read, so descriptive I felt nauseous and completely harrowed, but I was compelled to keep turning the pages just to see what became of Minka and her family. In fact this was my favourite part of the book, the storyline was simply amazing. I also loved the character of Josef, I couldn't comprehend the secret he bestowed upon Sage, and as awful as it was I just couldn't hate him. His relationship with his dog Eva was so touching and 'real' it choked me to read.
The ending of the book was just brilliant and completely blew me away, I never had the slightest idea what was about to happen and could have cried several buckets. If there was ever one of those 'turning the clock back' moments, it was then. I was sat just going over the facts for at least an hour before I could even take pen to paper to review.
The Storyteller is a most powerful tale of love, loss, betrayal retribution and redemption, but more so strength, determination and honour.
The backbone of this book is World War two and the holocaust, I would advise caution before reading, it can be quite graphic.
I would give it the most well deserved five stars I have ever given!
