The Storyteller

Even if there are predictable formulas to Picoult’s books — multiple story lines, family estrangements, twist endings — it doesn’t preclude their power. The Storyteller, which cycles between WWII-era Poland and the present, is narrated by a baker, her Auschwitz-survivor grandmother, a Nazi hunter, and a Polish vampire, among others. Although the to-be-expected romance feels a bit contrived, the more substantial Holocaust scenes are palpable and harrowing. At its heart, Storyteller is about whether anyone has the right to tell someone else’s secrets — and what the emotional cost of forgiveness truly is. B+