The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult

Yet another Jodi Picoult, though probably the last for a while. This one was easily my favorite and her best by far but only for the middle. The Storyteller follows Sage, a twenty five year old whose with facial scars from a car accident that killed her mother, she works as a baker by night, has few friends and is in a relationship with a married man that her best friend is deeply against. 

Sage identifies as an atheist, though comes from a Jewish background and her grandmother, Minka is a holocaust survivor, 

Sage meets Josef Weber, first through her grief group and then later, at the bakery she works at and once they establish a friendship Josef divulges a dark secret and asks Sage to do something massive for him. 

If you don't want to know Josefs secret, stop here and skip ahead to the rating if you don't mind, carry on. Josef as it turns out, is a former Nazi who has been hiding in plain sight since the war ended and he wants Sage to forgive him and then kill him. 

This part of the story is mildly intriguing and to be honest, Josef is relatively likable until its revealed that he is a former Nazi however when Picoult switches narrative and we hear the tale of Minka, Sages grandmother, this was a part of the novel i literally couldn't put down, reading until the middle of the night, wanting to hear what happened to her. Its awful, heartbreaking and even though Minka and her story is fiction the fact is that the holocaust happened, the horrors happened and so it is a harrowing read, but one that Picoult has weaved expertly, Minkas voice is beautiful, at times she soars, sometimes she falls, but she is always brave. She is without a doubt the standout of this entire novel and easily, the best character that Picoult has ever created.

I lost myself so entirely in the middle of the novel, in Minka, that when it reverted back to Sage i had actually forgotten she was apart of the story, but I did like the way the story ended eventually, not the sappy romance that was thrown in but the real grit of Sage, Minka, Leo and Josef and the moral questions of the past and the future. 

5 stars for me, purely based on Minkas excerpts. Which could have been a novel itself.