She enjoyed writing, working on a story about a vampiric creature called an upiór. Minka grew up in a small village called Łódź with her father, a baker, and her mother and pregnant sister Basia. His younger brother, Franz, abhorred the Nazi ideology but was eventually compelled to join the SS and stationed at Auschwitz as well. He excelled in the Hitler Youth and went on to the SS, committing countless murders as a young officer before being promoted to a position of power at Auschwitz. Josef describes being indoctrinated into the Nazi ideology at an early age. Minka and Josef’s firsthand accounts of their lives are threaded throughout the narrative. Minka has refused to speak about her experience in the Holocaust since moving to America, but Leo eventually convinces her to open up. They turn to Sage’s grandmother Minka for more information. Leo visits Sage in Westerbrook to continue the investigation. When Leo investigates this name, it matches that of a former Auschwitz guard. Leo is unable to identify Josef by name until he confesses to Sage that his real name is not Josef but Reiner Hartmann. As a practicing Jew, Leo is passionate about bringing the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. Sage reports Josef’s confession to Leo Stein, a Justice Department worker who helps prosecute war crimes.

However, he first wants her, as a Jew, to forgive him for his past. Josef sought Sage out because he has been plagued by guilt for decades and wants her to help him die by suicide. Josef is a beloved resident of Westerbrook, so Sage is shocked when he reveals that he used to be a guard at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp. Sage meets a 95-year-old man named Josef Weber at a grief therapy group and forms a tentative friendship with him.

She is estranged from her two sisters, and her only remaining familial tie is to her grandmother, Minka, a Holocaust survivor. Sage was raised by Jewish parents but has abandoned religion in the wake of her accident. Sage is plagued by guilt over the car accident and an affair she is conducting with Adam, a married funeral home director.

She lives in the small town of Westerbrook and works at a bakery attached to a religious shrine, where her late hours allow her to remain socially isolated. Sage Singer is a reclusive woman with a large scar on her face, a relic from the car accident that killed her mother and left her orphaned. Please be advised that The Storyteller includes depictions of assisted death by suicide and features discussion of self-harm and disturbing violence related to the Holocaust.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult