• The Zookeeper's War

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The Zookeeper's War

by Steven Conte

Format: Paperback

Condition: Standard Secondhand — £14.41
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An extraordinary, award-winning debut, a story of passion and sacrifice in a city battered by war.



Winner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Christina Stead Award for Fiction.

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In wartime Berlin, who can you trust?

1943: Each night in a bomb shelter beneath the Berlin Zoo an Australian woman, Vera, shelters with her German husband, Axel, the zoo's director. Together, they struggle to look after the animals through the air raids and food shortages. When the zoo's staff is drafted into the army, forced labourers are sent in as replacements. At first, Vera finds the idea abhorrent, but gradually she realises that the new workers are the zoo's only hope, and forms an unlikely bond with one of them.

But Berlin is a city where a foreign accent is a constant source of suspicion, where busybodies report the names of neighbours' dinner guests to the Gestapo. As tensions mount in the closing days of the war, nothing, and no one, it seems, can be trusted.

The Zookeeper's War is a powerful novel of a marriage, and of a city collapsing. It confronts not only the brutality of war but the possibility of heroism - and delivers an ending that is both shocking and deeply moving.

'Beautifully textured and extremely well realised ... a clever, inspired, insightful, tension-filled drama' Bookseller + Publisher

Genre: Fiction, Historical
Format: Paperback
Published: 2020
Pages: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
ISBN: 9781460759417

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Our conditions mean the following:

  • New - a brand new book
  • Almost New - appears new but is actually secondhand.
  • Very Good - only minor imperfections such as minor scuffs to edge or cover or a price written in pencil or shop sticker.
  • Standard Secondhand - Clearly been read before, but not too bad. We do not recommend these for gifting. Spines usually creased. Could also include creases or folds to cover, some writing such as in the cover or elsewhere, underlining or highlighting, but might not do. Possibly some stains or marks. Similar in general to books in any secondhand shop or charity shop.
  • Poor Condition - Usually this will have a specific problem such as writing inside, water damage, missing dust jacket, heavy staining, large creases or cuts. These are readable copies but not nice ones. On other websites this condition is called 'Acceptable' or 'Fair' , but we want to be more honest.
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