AZJL_Mar13
AZJL_Mar13
AZJL_Mar13
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[ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT]<br />
The Storyteller<br />
Since Valley residents shared their stories with her, novelist<br />
Jodi Picoult shares her new novel in Arizona<br />
By Debra Rich Gettleman<br />
It’s a bit intimidating to nd yourself on the other end<br />
of the telephone with one of the top-selling novelists<br />
in the world. But when she’s as bubbly, personable and<br />
unassuming as Jodi Picoult, you quickly forget about<br />
her multiple No. 1 best-sellers and nd yourself enjoying<br />
the chat as if you were longtime pals catching up<br />
on old times.<br />
Picoult’s novels My Sister’s Keeper, Vanishing<br />
Acts, e Tenth Circle, House Rules,<br />
Handle with Care and Lone Wolf are just<br />
some of her New York Times best-sellers.<br />
But we’re not talking about her admirable<br />
achievements, impressive academic<br />
credentials or numerous honors and awards<br />
today. What brings us together today is<br />
her newest book, scheduled for release<br />
Feb. 26. Called e Storyteller, it’s about<br />
a beloved 90-year-old man, Josef Weber,<br />
and his unlikely friendship with Sage,<br />
a young woman who works in the local<br />
New Hampshire town’s bakery. Josef has<br />
a strange request for Sage: to help him<br />
die. “It’s what I deserve,” he confesses, and<br />
brandishes a photo of himself in an SS<br />
ocer uniform. Complicating things just a<br />
wee bit more is the fact that Sage’s grandmother,<br />
Minka, a Holocaust survivor, has a<br />
surprising connection to Josef.<br />
Sage struggles to comprehend her<br />
grandmother’s story of survival and how<br />
she was able to live a peaceful and productive<br />
life after the brutality and horrors she<br />
endured at the hands of the Nazis. But<br />
Sage also is plagued by how a respected<br />
elder who coached Little League and<br />
taught German at the local high school<br />
could have committed acts of unthinkable<br />
evil. In e Storyteller Picoult takes readers into the mind of a<br />
Nazi, oering his own rationale to justify his acts of horror. She<br />
also draws us into the heart of a remarkable survivor whose path<br />
to forgiveness has taught her how to go on living.<br />
Picoult did extensive research for this novel here in the Valley.<br />
She spoke with several survivors as well as Paul Wieser, a local<br />
Holocaust historian and Mandel fellow of the U.S. Holocaust<br />
Memorial Museum. Picoult’s parents heard Wieser speak at a<br />
Jewish lm festival in town and asked if he would meet with<br />
44 MARCH 2013 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE<br />
Best-selling author<br />
Jodi Picoult speaks<br />
on her new novel,<br />
The Storyteller<br />
TUCSON<br />
Tucson Festival of Books<br />
March 9, 1 pm at University of<br />
Arizona; Student Union,<br />
Ballroom, 1303 E. University<br />
Blvd., 2nd Floor<br />
Contact: 520-954-3300<br />
PHOENIX<br />
March 10, 1-3 pm at<br />
Congregation Beth Israel,<br />
10460 N. 56th St., Scottsdale<br />
Contact: 480-947-2974<br />
Pre-event: Private reception<br />
hosted by ADL: 602-274-0991<br />
Jodi Picoult<br />
their daughter on her next visit. Weiser<br />
said his rst conversation with Picoult was<br />
wonderful. “e next thing I knew she<br />
was over at the house, and we spent hours<br />
talking about the history, possible story<br />
lines, viewing photos ...”<br />
Wieser explains that Picoult eventually<br />
connected with Peter Black, head<br />
historian at the USHMM. He helped<br />
her enormously with details and accuracy.<br />
Picoult also worked with someone in the<br />
special investigations oce – a real live<br />
Nazi hunter, whose job it is to nd and<br />
prosecute former Nazis. According to<br />
Picoult, the road to prosecution is tough,<br />
since you cannot prosecute genocide in<br />
this country unless perpetrated by Americans<br />
against Americans. “e only way<br />
to punish former Nazis is to catch them<br />
on immigration violations,” she explains.<br />
“en you can extradite them and hope that their home country<br />
prosecutes them.”<br />
Picoult also spoke with several local survivors. “Every single<br />
Holocaust survivor is inspiring,” she insists. But she especially<br />
connected with Mania Salinger, spending the most time and<br />
eort getting to know her story. “Mania reminded me so much<br />
of my grandmother,” says Picoult. “I’m so grateful she allowed<br />
me to rie through her memories.” Picoult says she and Salinger<br />
have become good friends, and she praises Salinger for her