A history of Adelaide zoo and a riveting German thriller are among this week’s top picks
A HISTORY of Adelaide zoo and a riveting German thriller are among this week’s top picks.
Books & Magazines
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Non Fiction
ELEPHANTS AND EGOTISTS by Patricia Summerling
Wakefield Press, $24.95
Meandering the leafy pathways of the Adelaide Zoo in 2016, there are few clues to the power struggles, dramas, controversies, crises and tragedies of the institution’s past. All this is illuminated in historian Pat Summerling’s latest book.
As author of the historical crime mystery, The Noon Lady of Towitta, and someone who has long workedon Adelaide heritage, Summerling is a fastidious researcher. She travelled to Thailand to trace the shadowed origins of Samorn, the elephant beloved at the zoo from the 1950s to the 1990s.
She tells a heart-rending tale of the characters who cared for or made decisions on the fate of Samorn and other zoo creatures. There are some disturbing revelations about the animal market and, indeed, in Summerling style, it’s a page-turner of a history book.
SAMELA HARRIS *****
Originally published as A history of Adelaide zoo and a riveting German thriller are among this week’s top picks