The Book Thief

566 pages

English language

Published Sept. 11, 2007

ISBN:
978-0-375-84220-7
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4 stars (1 review)

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

READING …

16 editions

Review of 'The Book Thief' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Reading books about WWII in Germany is hard for me. I don't know, the scope of what transpired back then, and the thought that my parents were part of the Nazi youth groups, it's a bit much. At least until the middle of the book, I was pretty meh about it all. The narrator, the Denglish, the for me very weird sentence structure, it put me off.

But the longer you read, the more all those various characters of Himmel Street grow on you. From Liesel to Rosa to the mayor's wife or Rudy, they're all very touching characters. They make the book. And that's why in the end I came to love this book about a German family in a small Bavarian town near Munich, and all the various, touching, tragic events that happened during the war.