title: The Zookeeper's War
text: # The Zookeeper's War
  
  The Zookeeper's War (2007) is a novel by Australian author Steven Conte. It won the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction in 2008.
  
  ## Plot summary
  
  The novel tells the story of Vera Frey, a young Australian who marries the heir to Berlin Zoo just prior to World War II. As the zoo's workers are conscripted and replaced by PoWs, Vera and her husband Axel fight to maintain the zoo's standards and to survive as the world about them disintegrates.
  
  