Author: Jodi Picoult
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2013
480 pages
Of all the books I read this year, The Storyteller was my absolute favorite. It has all of my favorite book genres (historical fiction, mystery, contemporary, supernatural twist) wrapped up into one package. But most of all it's just good writing and a good story. Or stories.
Main character Sage Singer is a baker in New Hampshire, working the night shift so she doesn't have to interact with people. A person with scars on the inside and out, Sage goes through life as invisibly as she can. She lives with the guilt of surviving the accident that caused her scars and the death of another person. Reluctantly, she attends grief counseling sessions. There she develops a sort of friendship with an older gentleman. Their relationship intensifies when he shares stories of his earlier life in Nazi Germany and Sage begins to wonder who he really is. Meanwhile, a third storyline about a teenage girl living near a small European village being terrorized by a supernatural creature weaves through Sage's modern-day story and her friend's World War II-era story.
The Storyteller is a ultimately about forgiveness and redemption of the characters and ourselves. Once you get into it, it's impossible to put down. Highly, highly recommended -- this is the book I sent to my reading buddies in Austria and Belgium this year. I hope they'll like it as much as I did!
