{"product_id":"9781460759417_the-zookeepers-war","title":"The Zookeeper's War","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extraordinary, award-winning debut, a story of passion and sacrifice in a city battered by war.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Christina Stead Award for Fiction.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn wartime Berlin, who can you trust?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1943: 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut 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.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Zookeeper's War\u003c\/em\u003e 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'\u003cstrong\u003eBeautifully textured \u003c\/strong\u003eand extremely well realised ... a clever, \u003cstrong\u003einspired\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003einsightful\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003etension-filled \u003c\/strong\u003edrama' \u003cem\u003eBookseller + Publisher\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Steven Conte","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46905356157077,"sku":"9781460759417","price":24.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9781460759417.jpg?v=1776889823","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9781460759417_the-zookeepers-war","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}