576 pages
English language
Published Sept. 11, 2007
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left 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 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. The Book Thief is a story about the power of words and the ability of books to feed the soul.
It's just a small story really, …
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left 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 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. The Book Thief is a story about the power of words and the ability of books to feed the soul.
It's just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist -- books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. - Markus Zusak.
I wanted to enjoy this. I would say I was moderately invested by the end but I didn’t love it. I felt confused trying to follow the characters and the timeline. I liked the concept of the story being told by death in Nazi Germany during World War II. I would’ve guessed the book was written longer ago than 2005 based on how it was written. I’m glad I read it but I wouldn’t want to read it again.
I normally steer clear of two kinds of books; coming of age stories and historical novels, in particular those set during world war II. This book is both, and I loved it anyway, which should tell you something.
What the author does with language and narrative framing is simply out of this world.
Superb.
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.
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.
