Diane Ackerman

The true story of how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw -- and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Żabiński began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Żabińskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts....

Ackerman chronicles her novelist husband Paul West's heroic battle to reclaim words and mobility and her tailoring of West's speech therapy to match his spectacular vocabulary and unique intelligence.

Draws on sources ranging from meteorology and religion to history and organic farming to introduce bird music and other signs of avian intelligence, in a series of meditations that describe the author's migration-copying travels between New York and Florida.

Discusses each of the five senses, hearing, smell, taste, touch and vision, through Diane Ackerman's perspective.