The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Summary:

-There is a small fact-

You are going to die.

1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

-Some important information-

This novel is narrated by Death.

it’s a small story, about:

a girl

an accordionist

some fanatical Germans

a Jewish fist fighter

and quite a lot of thievery.

-Another thing you should know-

Death will visit the book thief three times.

Plot:

Some books play with your mind, this one plays with your heart. It’s also the kind of book that you want to start over when you reach the last few pages because you just don’t want it to end, or you know you won’t be able to handle the end.It’s brutally honest, but never becomes gory or overly graphic. I think it’s great that the story centres on a German family instead of a Jewish one. The writing is incredible, the author creates pictures and describes things in a way that captures you completely. He plays with words and breaks language rules, without which this story would have been entirely too sad to read. Every word, sentence, paragraph and chapter of this book needs to be savoured. This is not a happy book, but it’s a beautiful one. And one thought kept popping into my head while I read: “everybody dies sometime, and maybe that's okay”.

Characters:

You absolutely fall in love with the characters in this book. Even the ones you don’t really like all the time. Death, the narrator, is shown in such a strangely positive way that you actually sympathise with him instead of the human characters. Liesel is incredible and you root for her from the very first page. I also fell in love with Rudy, Liesel’s best friend. None of the characters were perfect and all of them were relatable. You felt for every character, even the ones who did the wrong thing.

Who should read this:

13+, mainly for the dark themes (the book is narrated by Death...) and some language. If you like historical fiction, but want something different this is absolutely the one for you. I would actually recommend this to anyone and everyone. If you’re looking for a book that will capture your mind, heart and imagination you don’t need to look any further. However, if you’re looking for a quick, light or happy read this is definitely not the one for you. Just because this is YA, does not mean adults can't enjoy it too, trust me.

My rating:

I usually walk away from books that were over-hyped feeling extremely dissapointed. This was not the case with ‘the Book Thief’. It’s everything I want in a novel, emotional, original and well-written. This book has all the ingredients to become a classic. I will definitely be rereading it, because I feel like this is one of those books you can get something new from with every read. 5/5

Quote:

Almost every sentence in this book is quotable, but this one sums up the book pretty well for me:

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right”-Liesel.