The Storyteller

By Jodi Picoult

Washington Square Press, 2013.

Summary[1] Sage Singer, a young woman in her early twenties, is attending a grief support group after her mother’s death. Here she meets an elderly man, Josef Weber. Sage and Josef quickly become good friends, but their friendship changes when Josef asks Sage to help him to die and confesses a secret he has kept for decades. Following Josef’s wishes could have moral and legal repercussions for Sage. However, knowing his secret adds another dimension to the ethical dilemma Sage finds herself in. 

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Ethical Issues:

Justice                                                                                                                         Responsibility

Genocide                                                                                                                     Accountability

Forgiveness                                                                                                                 Moral Choice                                                                                                                                                 

Discussion questions:

  • What was your reaction to Josef’s secret?
  • Is Josef Weber an evil person?
  • Why do you think Josef needed to ask someone to help him die?
  • Do you think Minka would have wanted Sage to help Josef die?
  • How would you have responded to Josef’s request?
  • When Josef asked Sage to help him die, he was aware of her family background. How would the ethical dilemma be different if Josef had confessed to her friend Mary, who was formerly a nun, instead of to Sage?
  • Do you think Sage made the right decision?
  • What does it mean to forgive someone?
  • Who is forgiveness for? – the person who is forgiven, the person who forgives, or both?
  • Why do you think Minka stole pictures of people she didn’t know, despite knowing that she put her own life at risk by doing so?

Discuss the following passages from the book:

P. 165-166: And I think of Leo. I wonder how he subjects himself to these sorts of stories, willingly, every day. Maybe it’s not so much about catching the perpetrators, after sixty-five years. Maybe it’s just so that he knows someone is still listening, for the sake of the victims.

P. 164-165: “It is amazing, what you can make yourself believe, when you have to, “Josef says. “If you keep telling yourself you are a certain kind of person, eventually you will become that person.

P. 449: “Doesn’t it count for anything if Josef wishes he hadn’t done it?”

Leo looks at me. “What counts, he says, “is that he did.”

P. 451: She faces me. “I don’t know what this person did to you, and I am not sure I want to. But forgiveness isn’t something you do for someone else. It’s something you do for yourself. It’s saying, You’re not important enough to have a stranglehold on me. It’s saying, You don’t get to trap me in the past, I am worthy of a future.”

I think of my grandmother, whose silence all these years had accomplished the same goal. For better or for worse, Josef Weber is part of my life. Of my family’s story. Is the only way to edit him out of it to do what he’s asked; to excuse him for his actions?

[1] Adapted from publisher’s summary.