Washington Post Book World:

A lovely story about the Holocaust might seem like a grotesque oxymoron. But in The Zookeeper's Wife, Diane Ackerman proves otherwise.

NYT Book Review:

The Zabinskis’ effort was not just merciful, it was human in the deepest sense of the word.

While the Nazis depopulated the ghetto, the Zabinskis repopulated the zoo — this time with humans. Those who had papers or Gentile looks were passed via the underground to other parts of Poland. The rest stayed.

A Natural History of Terrible Things