Hettie wants to be taken seriously as the only female zookeeper at Bellevue, though navigating her terse boss and the physical demands of working with large exotic animals proves challenging. Hettie’s older sister is dead and her father absent, and she tiptoes around the house she shares with her mother, Rose. Onlookers are bewildered, but young zookeeper Hettie Quin finds a sense of purpose in the elephant’s presence. The Bellevue Zoo has welcomed a new elephant named Violet to its menagerie, parading the pachyderm through the streets of Belfast with all the pomp of a visiting dignitary. Kirk Walsh’s first novel opens in 1940, just as German bombardment begins to threaten Northern Ireland. Loosely based on true events-and the real people and animals that played a part- The Elephant of Belfast captures the turmoil of both a city and a young woman’s life during World War II.
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