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The Book Thief |
Average User Rating: 90% (333 Reviews) | |
| 4 / 5 | A deeply unsettling but truly moving novel
kimbofo (London, UK) - 27 January 2008 The Book Thief is one of those children's books that has crossed over into the adult market and become subject to incredible word-of-mouth marketing. To be honest, I let it languish on my nightstand for 12 months, because I wasn't sure it would live up to the hype. I've read my fair share of books about the Holocaust and wasn't sure this one would tell me anything I didn't already know. But the author, Markus Zusak, has created a wholly original story. First, the narrator is death, who talks in a kind of roundabout language, part all-knowing, part creepy, part loving. And second, the main character is an ordinary German girl growing up in Nazi Germany who must confront many personal difficulties and traumas during the course of the Second World War. This is not so much a book about the extermination of the Jewish race under Nazi occupation, but the ways in which many Germans went about their ordinary lives at the time and the extraordinary lengths some of them went to save their Jewish friends. The story begins with Liesel Meminger, a traumatised nine-year-old girl. It's 1939 and she has just witnessed the death and burial of her younger brother enroute to her new foster family in a town called Molching. During the burial Liesel picks up an object she finds in the snow -- The Gravediggers Handbook -- which sets up a lifelong love of books, even if she has to beg, borrow or steal them. Her foster father, the kindly accordion-playing Hans Hubermann, teaches her how to read, and together the two of them pass many hours pouring over the pages of the gravedigger's instruction manual. Later, when the family takes in a Jewish man, Max Vanderburg, and hides him away in their basement, Leisel shares her love of words with him, too. Desperate for new reading material, Liesel -- with the help of her blonde-headed friend Rudy -- rescues a book from a Nazi book-burning pile. Later she is introduced to an amazing private library, owned by the mayor's wife, which allows her to momentarily escape the dismal poverty of her ordinary day-to-day life. But when the Nazis discover her foster father handing out bread to a march-through of Jews on their way to Dachau, their lives suddenly take on a more sinister, darker twist -- which no amount of book thievery can alleviate. When the Allied bombs begin to fall on their street, things get even worse and death begins to close in on Liesel, her family and friends... The Book Thief is, without a doubt, an incredibly memorable story. The narrative voice is unique, and the style, which double-backs on itself and occasionally jumps backwards and forwards in time, is interesting if somewhat confusing at times (Would kids get this? I kept asking myself). Initially the staccato rhythm of Death's voice jarred, but I soon learnt to appreciate its whimsical charm. However, I enjoyed the story much more when Death kept his mouth shut and simply let Liesel get on with things. The characters are great, too. Liesel starts off as a rather weak-willed creature, too terrified to even step out of the car when she first arrives at her foster family's home, but over the course of the war she turns into a feisty, courageous tom-boy, who isn't scared of tackling anyone who bullies her. And her best friend Rudy, who has an obsession with Olympic athlete Jesse James, is a suitable, dare I say lovable, ally. I was not as convinced about the foster parents who seemed a little stereotyped -- the kindly, loving father; the foul-mouthed, bullish mother -- but I can understand that younger readers would enjoy the "good cop, bad cop" personalities. The Book Thief is a deeply unsettling story and a truly moving one. I teared up over so many scenes that I couldn't bare to list them here for fear of running out of room! The ending is of the typical grab-your-tissues-and-sob-your-eyes-out ilk. But in reading this very long book -- perhaps a fraction too long, in my opinion (it meanders a lot in the middle) -- I never once thought I was being emotionally manipulated. Zusak does a nice line in letting actions speak louder than words, so that the reader gets to join the dots rather than have every little thing spelt out for them. I like this approach, if only because he treats the children to which this book is aimed with intelligence rather than patronising or speaking down to them. A delightfully human book, haunting, wise and joyous by turn. I don't know why I waited so long to read it. ... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | Just read it!!!
A. Hope "bookcrossing ali" (Birmingham, England) - 22 February 2008 I am not sure how to describe this book - without either giving too much away - or making it sound depressing and grisely which it is not at all. Suffice to say this is a novel narrated by death. It is the story of a young girl living in Nazi Germany, who goes to live with a foster family,and learns to read, and falls in love with: books, her new Papa, a boy called Rudy, and a Jew hiding in a basement. It is also a story of WW2 - from a persepective we don't often see - ordinaary Germans - some of whom were members of "The Party." Death takes the reader by the hand, and leads us through the lives and deaths of people in Liesel's world, he kind of "gives the game away" a few times - and yet that never spoils it - it prepares the reader for what's ahead. This is an astonishing book - the writing is great - an unusual style - but one that fits perfectly somehow with the voice of Death - and that of the unforgettable Liesel. ... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | A masterpiece of empathy
Gordon Eldridge (Southport, Australia) - 28 November 2007 Sometimes a fictional interpretation of history is exactly what we need in order to be able to come to a real understanding of what it meant to live through historic events, particularly horrific ones. Markus Zusak provides us with a masterful interpretation of the Nazi period of German history from the perspective of ordinary people suffering through it and striving to keep their lives together and their souls alive and kicking within the horrific and ever-tightening boundaries constructed by the Nazi regime. He gives us a gut-wrenchingly palpable empathy for people facing harrowing decisions on a daily basis. His marvelous characters bring to life the dilemmas of those who believe they should help the Jews as well as the equally nightmarish predicament of Jews who through receiving help put others in danger. We see much of this through the perspective of the main character Liesel, who is only a young girl. Her innocence and the gradual realizations she comes to about the events swirling around her in a maelstrom of horror evoke a remarkable empathy in the reader. If you want to understand how the little people cope with such tragic historic events without allowing their souls to be crushed, read this book. Ultimately it is a portrait of the resilience and hope of the human spirit.... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | Brilliant
kehs (Hertfordshire, England) - 8 April 2008 A young girl, Liesel, steals books from a gravedigger at the burial of her younger brother, from Nazi book burnings and from the mayor's library. She lives with a foster family and her father slowly teaches her to read these books. Later, her family hide a Jew to keep him safe. The story is narrated by Death, who I came to respect and admire for his sense of compassion. This book tells of the nasty turns that life can take and how our lives can alter in the blink of an eye, and is about life, love and the power of words. It's the most eloquently written, emotional, yet uplifting story I have read in a long, long while and my ramblings really cannot do justice to the brilliance of this superlative tale ... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | Touching story of World War II
Jaybird (London, UK) - 3 January 2008 The Book Thief is the story of a ten year old orphan girl in Germany in World War II. It is narrated by Death, who adds a wider historical perspective to the particular story of this little girl's coming of age. If this device is a conceit, it works pretty well. After a while, Death is just another character or narrator, with an adult, dry sense of (black) humour. In many ways the use of Death as a narrator reminded my of The Lovely Bones. Readers who enjoyed that book will welcome this one. Marcus Zuzak handles his themes of loss and love deftly, and the story is made more interesting because it is the story of decent, unpolitical German people, who sometimes do wrong and sometimes do right; a book of moral contingencies then. The writing is fluid, charming and genuinely touching. This book is highly recommneded.... Read Full Review » |
Publisher
Doubleday
Publication Date
3 July 2007
Format
Paperback (592 pages)
ISBN
9780385611473
Price Range
£6.50 - £6.50
List Price
£10.99
