Goodreads | The Book Thief

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The book thief	19	03/06/2008 04:16AM

Magdalena rated it:

07/12/07

Read in February, 2007

recommends it for: adults (despite its genre in the US)

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief has one of the most original and striking narrators since Julian Barnes introduced us to the canny perspective of a woodlice in History of the World in 10½ Chapters. There’s no caginess about it. The first word of the first chapter’s title makes it clear that the narrator is a personified Death: the not so grim reaper. Having Death as the narrator for a book set in Germany at the start of World War II starts the book on exactly the right blackly humorous t...more Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief has one of the most original and striking narrators since Julian Barnes introduced us to the canny perspective of a woodlice in History of the World in 10½ Chapters. There’s no caginess about it. The first word of the first chapter’s title makes it clear that the narrator is a personified Death: the not so grim reaper. Having Death as the narrator for a book set in Germany at the start of World War II starts the book on exactly the right blackly humorous tone which continues throughout. It’s a very Jewish type of humour. I’m thinking of the classic Borsch belt comedians like Sholem Aleichem, Milton Berle or perhaps even later comedians like Billy Crystal or Woody Allen. As Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse quoted in her Radio National piece on Jewish Humour, Saul Bellow calls “characteristically Jewish” a story in which laughter and trembling are so curiously mingled that it is not easy to determine the relations between the two, or as Death puts it: “A final dirty joke. Another human punchline.” (12) This is part of the power of what Zusak does in The Book Thief.

Although The Book Thief succeeds on the most post-modern of levels, its impact on the reader is as much due to superb old fashioned plot and characterisation as anything else. It is, afterall, simply a beautiful and painful story of a young girl as she deals with an important and tragic point in history. Liesel is nine and her younger brother six, when her mother takes her and her brother to Munich to be given to foster parents. En route her brother dies: “When the coughing stopped, there was nothing but the nothingness of life moving on with a shuffle, or a near-silent twitch. A suddenness found its way onto his lips then, which were a corroded brown colour, and peeling, like old paint.” (20) Liesel is then thrust into a nightmare/dream existance which involves the thieving of a book, the development of a relationship with her foster parents, Rosa and Hans Huberman, and her growing sense of self as she ages during this period. Liesel’s coming of age is a key part of the plot, and it is possible to read the book as simply the story of Liesel. Certainly Liesel’s characterisation is enough to carry the story. When Liesel arrives at the Hubermans she is scared, almost mute, and refuses to get out of the car or into a bath, but we have already begun to love her through the lens of Death’s sympathy

Death’s own role as a character is a strong one, and he hints at a conflicted inner life. In some ways he makes himself a slave of humans – dealing with the impact of their wars and atrocities: “The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.” An afterlife is hinted at very subtly, but never clarified – bodies go cold and melt and sometimes warm again as their souls are gently removed. That’s all the reader gets. The rest is left open to imagination, as is the direction that Death as character might be moving in. He’s allegorical in one sense, but so real in his sensations, longings and emotions, that it isn’t hard to imagine some kind of progression for him. As character, he may not be nice, but he has his charms, as typified by the last line in the book. Death’s most striking punchline is delivered at the very end. And like the best Jewish humour, it works by turning both fear and convention on its head, in this case, making humans the ‘other’ haunting entity. It also places the final spotlight directly on life, and the celebration and triumph of it, even in the face of man-made hatred and horror. <cite>The Book Thief </cite> is a wonderful book, full of beauty, pain, longing, joy, and sensuality. It never skirts the horror of war, death, or pain, nor does it flinch at the very real tragedy it immerses itself, sometimes graphically, in. But even at its ugliest, this is a story of the beauty and celebration, however fleeting, of human life. ...less

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Colleen rated it:

09/15/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: People who want a fresh angle on the Holocaust.

I put off reading this book for the library book club. Here are my three reasons for doing so:

1) It's a Young Adult Book. I am an Adult. It can't be that good if it's written for young people.
2) It's about the Holocaust, and I think we've all heard enough about that. The author will probably even focus on colors among the grays, as in "Schindler's List."
3) I have WAY too many other books to read.

After avoiding the book for as long as possible, I sat down, hoping to e...more I put off reading this book for the library book club. Here are my three reasons for doing so:

1) It's a Young Adult Book. I am an Adult. It can't be that good if it's written for young people.
2) It's about the Holocaust, and I think we've all heard enough about that. The author will probably even focus on colors among the grays, as in "Schindler's List."
3) I have WAY too many other books to read.

After avoiding the book for as long as possible, I sat down, hoping to enjoy it enough to gain some clever comments for the book group.

Turns out, most of my concerns were right. But one other thing was also true: THIS BOOK ROCKS.

The first thing any review will say about this book is that it is narrated by death. So, I might as well get it out of the way. Death, the Hooded One, the Angel of the Night, narrates. He is very busy during the war years, as you might expect. Some people claim this is a mere gimmick, and that the story is strong enough as it is.

I agree that this is a strong story-- it moves like a sailboat on a brisk day-- but I think the choice to tell it through Death was a good one. Death foreshadows constantly, so we know a bit about which of the characters will die. Instead of ruining the shock value, this heightened my anticipation and dread. And isn't that how people feel during war? They know some of them are bound to die. They know they will lose loved ones. It's one long, hellish wait to see how it will turn out.

It's also an unusual take on the Holocaust because it focuses on Liesel, an orphaned German girl living in Hitler's birthplace. Liesel (The Book Thief) and the other characters in this book are rich, interesting, and wily. I say wily because at points in the book you hate them, but they change, and you grow to love them. For instance, Liesel's adopted mother is a foul-mouthed, abusive, sharp woman. (SPOILER--->) When Liesel's adopted father is shipped off to war, however, Liesel creeps through the house to see Rosa sleeping with her husband's accordian strapped around her waist. Rosa's changes prove one of the greatest reasons to read good literature-- to get insight into the type of people we don't usually give a second chance.
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Tamara rated it:

05/13/08

bookshelves: crowd-pleasers, teen, top-10

Read in August, 2007

I give this 5 stars, BUT there is a disclaimer: If you want a fast read, this book is not for you. If you only like happy endings this book is not for you. If you don't like experimental fiction, this book is not for you.

If you love to read and if you love to care about the characters you read about and if you love to eat words like they're ice cream and if you love to have your heart broken and mended on the same page, this book is for you.

This story is narrated by Death during World ...more

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Tom rated it:

04/27/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

Markus Zusak originally wrote this book to be much shorter, only a hundred pages or so, but the extra length doesn’t bloat the tale at all. In fact this is one of the most succinct tales about humanity I have ever read, embodying all that’s best and worst about people in one childhood. It has a clear start, the death of her brother, and a clear ending that I won’t spoil for you.

First of all let’s get a few things straight.
Firstly: It’s set in Nazi Germany and features, amo...more

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Auntie rated it:

(review of isbn 0375842209)

05/03/08

bookshelves: finished

Read in April, 2008

My good friend, Barbara E. suggested this book to me. I went to the Youth section of Borders to find it, and discovered that it's a recommended book for High School age children.

What a treat it was to read this story set in prewar Germany. The narrator is Death and the main characters are preteen children and a slightly older Jewish teen. Sounds morbid, right?

That impression kept me from opening the book, for quite a while. However, once I began, I could hardly put the book down.

In m...more

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Zannachan rated it:

(review of isbn 0375842209)

01/11/08

bookshelves: general-fiction, young-adult

Read in March, 2007

I had a hardcover of this book. I no longer have it. I did not even finish reading it, because it irritated me so much and when I asked if it got better no one could convince me that it was worth persevering.

I know that there are many people who love this book, authors who's book I love, readers who's tastes I respect. But I couldn't stand the narrator. Every time the Narrator intruded on the story it felt like exactly that--an intrusion. A lot of people really like the narrator, and I ...more I had a hardcover of this book. I no longer have it. I did not even finish reading it, because it irritated me so much and when I asked if it got better no one could convince me that it was worth persevering.

I know that there are many people who love this book, authors who's book I love, readers who's tastes I respect. But I couldn't stand the narrator. Every time the Narrator intruded on the story it felt like exactly that--an intrusion. A lot of people really like the narrator, and I imagine if you did the book would be much more enjoyable to read. As it was I found the writing style consciously "artistic" or "literary" while the characters felt fake, superficial, and mechanical. I was too aware of the mechanics of the story and how he was manipulating the reader--kind of like going to a puppet show and having the puppeteer continually slipping and letting himself be seen. It kept knocking me out of the story.

Holocaust fiction is hard for me to read anyway, because it's an incredibly difficult period of history and human experience to read about. For me to want to read Holocaust fiction, it had better be better than okay, or even good--ti had better be absolutely amazing for me to be willing to put myself through the emotional pain and struggles that are inherent with a holocaust book. Real life is hard enough for me to get upset and stressed out by a mediocre book.

And please don't take that to mean that I only read books that are light and fluffy and safe, because I do read books that are hard, that are sad. But while some people same to take pleasure in reading a book just because it is sad ("Oh, this is a wonderful book! It made me cry!"), I don't enjoy crying in and of itself. For me to read a book that is heart wrenching, it had better offer me something besides an emotional train wreck--powerful characters I really care about, an engrossing story line, some new observation on human existence and human relations, something.

I do not usually read fiction to "learn," per se--that is, if I wanted to learn more about the Holocaust, I'd read non-fiction accounts. I have read non-fiction accounts. I have read a few things of Holocaust fiction as well, and I have read some scholarly work as well. So it doesn't sell me on the book that it is a painful story, that it shows that some Germans were good and how social pressures created the Holocaust. I needed it to be a book about people that really interested me, that I cared about, and instead I was bored with the characters and irritated at the narrator and the obvious manipulations of the author. Instead of getting wrapped into the story, every night I when I was reading it I'd throw it down and vent for a half an hour to my husband about something that annoyed me. After a few nights of this, I realized that unless someone could convince me that the second half of the book was much better than the first that it just wasn't worth my time to finish.

'm not saying it's a bad book. So many people wouldn't love it if it were bad. But it really did not work for me....less

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Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0375842209)

04/01/08

bookshelves: bookclubs-secondary, childrens-and-ya, fiction, orphanded-and-quasi-orphaned-kids, reviewed

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: anyone who appreciates the power of words, those who enjoy reading holocaust era fiction

I admit that I am perplexed about why this is considered a young adult novel and not an adult novel that could be read by those 12 and up. The title character is a young girl, but there are plenty of novels written for adults that have young main protagonists. And I have to say that I could have enjoyed it at 12 but perhaps it’s more appropriate for those 14 and up, although that obviously depends on the reader. But I know that I enjoyed it more reading it as an adult than I would have as a yo...more I admit that I am perplexed about why this is considered a young adult novel and not an adult novel that could be read by those 12 and up. The title character is a young girl, but there are plenty of novels written for adults that have young main protagonists. And I have to say that I could have enjoyed it at 12 but perhaps it’s more appropriate for those 14 and up, although that obviously depends on the reader. But I know that I enjoyed it more reading it as an adult than I would have as a young adult. (This book has been on my to-read list for a long time, since before I joined Goodreads, and I am extraordinarily grateful to the Goodreads YA Book Club group for choosing this as the first book read/the April 2008 book, because it’s why I motivated myself to read it at this time, possibly ever given the number of books I want to read. And I’m glad to have the opportunity to “discuss” it with others.)

I have a penchant for reading books about the holocaust, and this is the most unique book about the Nazi era I’ve read; in fact, it’s one of the most unusual novels that I’ve ever read. Although not for the very first time, I was able to feel empathy for and care about the non-Jewish German population during the holocaust era. I really appreciated the viewpoints shown.

This book is lyrical and poetic and powerful, and thankfully at times funny. And I really got attached to many of the characters: Liesel, Hans, Max, Rudy, Rosa, etc., death also actually. But it’s the author’s choice of narrator that elevates the quality of this book. Death is the narrator and, in my opinion, the perfect one, although I’d have never thought of this plot device myself; without Death telling the story I doubt this would have been a 5 star book for me. I loved how all of the characters felt like real people and how they changed, and how my opinions of them then shifted as well. The writing was so full of vivid imagery that I felt as though I was right smack in the middle with the people and place, more so than in most of the books that I read. I loved the books and pictures within the book.

I found it to be both a sad and exhilarating book. Although I got choked up at several points, I did not feel that it was a depressing book. It’s about friendship and love, the power of words, loss and abandonment, that which saves/heals us, and life and death.

And reading the book struck me at the very core of my being. I really identified with Liesel in so many ways. Some of the events of her life felt similar to mine, although most of the details diverged significantly, but the emotional potency imparted in this book felt so real and influential to me.

Death the narrator both drew me in and also gave enough distance from the tale to make the events more bearable.

And I’m really happy that the library gave me the paperback version that contains some discussion questions and an interesting interview with the author.
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Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0375842209)

09/25/07

Read in September, 2007

Before going any further, let’s just get one thing out of the way: Damn Nazis! Okay, now that’s out of my system, I can discuss things a little more rationally.

It was The Book Thief’s title and cover that made me pick it up, and it was the subject matter and award on the cover that made me buy it. It was the writing, though, that made me finish the almost-600 pages in just three days.

Starting with The Devil’s Arthimetic, Summer of My German Soldier, The Diary of Anne Frank, and N...more Before going any further, let’s just get one thing out of the way: Damn Nazis! Okay, now that’s out of my system, I can discuss things a little more rationally.

It was The Book Thief’s title and cover that made me pick it up, and it was the subject matter and award on the cover that made me buy it. It was the writing, though, that made me finish the almost-600 pages in just three days.

Starting with The Devil’s Arthimetic, Summer of My German Soldier, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Number the Stars and moving through Survival in Auschwitz and Night, I have been fascinated by novels or memoirs that take place during World War II for most of my life, particularly those that focus on Nazi-Germany. The Book Thief has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf.

Though The Book Thief takes place in Nazi Germany during the early 1940s, there is no Nazi villain at center stage. Rather, it is the aftershocks of usually faraway war and the behaviors of neighbors that ripple through this quiet German town. The book focuses on the lives of non-Jewish Germans during the war: the terror, the pressure to join the Nazi Party, the starvation, the shame of living only miles from Dachau, the humiliation. But also, it shows hope and love and kindness and words and music in the midst of the bleakness.

Told from the point-of-view of Death, the opening sequences are like poetry, in prose form. The descriptions, the turning of phrases on their ends, the colors, it all comes together to create an atmosphere of reading. The words are almost characters themselves.

After the introductory remarks from Death, the story begins with illiterate nine-year-old Liesel, the book thief herself, on a train with her mother and younger brother. The threesome is on their way to Himmel Street in a town near Munich to deliver Liesel and the boy to foster parents. Her brother ominously coughs once on the train and dies. At the gravesite, one of the gravediggers drops a book, and Liesel steals it. She lands on Himmel Street sans brother but with her book. The next four years of Liesel’s life on Himmel Street are chronicled in some of the most beautiful language I’ve ever read.

Warning: though this is touted as a young-adult book there is quite a sprinkling of swearing. Much of it, though, is in German, which tends to soften the blow for me. Another thought: normally, I get irritated with authors for sticking in random foreign words that I can’t understand, but Zusak manages to keep the reader in the know while infusing the book with German.

Markus Zusak (via Death) presents the beauty and the ugly of humans without preaching, without a solution, but with wonder and awe.

I can't adequately express what this book did to me. Just read it!...less

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Walt rated it:

03/29/08

bookshelves: young-adult

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Walt by: My Dear Wife
recommends it for: everyone.

Bravo Zusak! A standing ovation, a mighty opus. You stood Death on her head, removing her dark cloak and scythe, clothing her with feeling and letting us see she has eyes to see and a heart to feel, and the intellect to narrate a compelling story. I was so glad to find out she has a womb. Out of Death comes Life. She has greater aplomb than Nick in telling about Gatsby.

In the spring of 1968 at age 19, I made my way to Dachau. I lived just south of Munich and the visit to the defunct concentr...more Bravo Zusak! A standing ovation, a mighty opus. You stood Death on her head, removing her dark cloak and scythe, clothing her with feeling and letting us see she has eyes to see and a heart to feel, and the intellect to narrate a compelling story. I was so glad to find out she has a womb. Out of Death comes Life. She has greater aplomb than Nick in telling about Gatsby.

In the spring of 1968 at age 19, I made my way to Dachau. I lived just south of Munich and the visit to the defunct concentration camp had a haunting effect upon me that will last until Death comes for me and, I believe, beyond (but eternity’s yet another subject; this story was about life.) I went back to Dachau several times, the souls of the living and the dead calling me. As I worked among Germans in nearby Munich, I was surprised to encounter Jews still, or perhaps again, making their home there, so close to Dachau, so soon after Hitler and his henchmen. These early experiences furnished my life with both angst and vision: with angst to recognize the potential for evil within ever human being and with vision to see the possibility for courage and compassion, to pick up a piece of bread to feed a cipher.

And that’s a big part of what The Book Thief does for me: it captures and again reminds me of these viabilities as they play out near Dachau in the heart of World War II’s Nazi Germany in the lives of Liesel and her contemporaries, alive and dead. Death tells Liesel’s tragic yet wonderful, story in order to keep memory alive. In the words of Elie Wiesel, “Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.” And surely this is Liesel’s story, not Death’s just as Gatsby's isn’t Nick’s. To remind us to stand up wherever tyranny and power put people down.

Zusak took the time and effort to invest the narrative with near perfect words, and wonderful sentences, and great paragraphs, and superb chapters. It would have been too cruel and ironic if the “book thief” had found herself betrayed by the words, sentences, and paragraphs of her story’s teller. Flesh fully clothes each character; conflict, action, and suspense oblige the attention of each reader; and the themes are true consistent throughout, start to finish, and the setting is hauntingly perfect. I hope because of this book I am closer to bending over and picking up some bread to give to a cipher, even if it puts us both at Death’s door.

It is a mighty work....less

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Kirsty rated it:

(review of isbn 0385613385)

04/11/08

bookshelves: historical-fiction, young-adult

Read in April, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I added this book to my to-read list after seeing some good reviews for it on GoodReads. Then I joined a YA book club on the site and they chose this as their book to read for April.

It is a story of a girl (Liesel) who is sent to live with foster parents after her own parents were taken away to a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. The story follows her progress with this new family, through school and in new friendships. The story is somewhat unique in that it is narrated by Death. This pro...more I added this book to my to-read list after seeing some good reviews for it on GoodReads. Then I joined a YA book club on the site and they chose this as their book to read for April.

It is a story of a girl (Liesel) who is sent to live with foster parents after her own parents were taken away to a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. The story follows her progress with this new family, through school and in new friendships. The story is somewhat unique in that it is narrated by Death. This proves very effective and adds a new layer to the book. This is categorized as a YA book, but personally if I’d read this as a 13 year old I don’t think I’d have appreciated it as much as I did reading it now.

Certain parts of the book (and the relationships in it) really spoke to me. The relationship between Liesel and Hans Hubermann is wonderful. He treats her and nurtures her as if she was his own child, and the love between the two is something really special. This touched a place in my heart as the man who brought me up was not my biological father, but was the only person I will ever call dad. Sadly he died 4 years ago. This meant that I was able to understand Liesel’s pain at losing Papa at the end of the book. Also her relationship with Max, the Jew that the Hubermanns took in and looked after, was really touching. It seemed to me that she saw Max as a replacement for her brother who died on the way to Himmel Street. Max and Liesel grew closer as the book went on, and it was wonderful to see this relationship develop.

The book really brought home the suffering and torture that the Jews were subjected to during Hitler’s regime. I found this really harrowing and difficult to read about. It made me realise how lucky I am to have what I do, and to live in a free country.

The narration by Death was an interesting twist, and I enjoyed the format in which Deaths observations were added into the book. I also liked the clues that he gave along the way as to what was going to happen later on in the book. There was a sentence of the book that struck me ‘She had her whole death ahead of her’. This was said casually in a way that one might say ‘she has her whole life ahead of her’. This is there to suggest that there is life after death, and that death is a whole new journey. I really like this idea. Also the way Death handles peoples’ souls is written very well, and the difference in the way that he handles the souls of the people who have been good, and the people that have been not so good.

All in all, this book was an excellent read, and I have the feeling I will read this again and again. For me it lived up to the hype and beyond. I would definitely recommend this to others.
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Joe rated it:

05/07/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in May, 2008

I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite being rife with some of the darkest subject matter I've come across lately. Written from the point of view of an anthropomorphized Death, this is a masterful work of prose by an author with roots in World War II Germany.

As a whole, I took the book as a testimonial to the notion that during the Nazi era "not all Germans were bad." While suffering deaths, the loss of friends and family, the harboring of a fugitive Jew, being haunted by ghosts, t...more I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite being rife with some of the darkest subject matter I've come across lately. Written from the point of view of an anthropomorphized Death, this is a masterful work of prose by an author with roots in World War II Germany.

As a whole, I took the book as a testimonial to the notion that during the Nazi era "not all Germans were bad." While suffering deaths, the loss of friends and family, the harboring of a fugitive Jew, being haunted by ghosts, the horror of war and the atrocities committed before The Book Thief's eyes, the Grim Reaper narrates her tale as she tries to remain a child during seemingly extraordinary circumstances as she is adopted from an impoverished family. Barely more well off than she was when the book begins - by way of a roof and a meal every night - the author tugs at the heart strings chapter after chapter poetically recounting how death might be so fascinated with someone so young and yet so aware of his presence.

Despite how depressing and morose this may all seem, there are quite a few comical ventures and amusing characters throughout the book that lightheartedly string together the melancholy passages making you want for a happy ending (even though Death spoils this for you pretty early on). Death also has some pretty interesting one-liners that he joylessly delivers regarding humanity like, "It kills me sometimes, how people die." However, I did find his final line in the book to be contrived and lame. He is quite the storyteller, but there's very little substance to Death as character in this novel. He does hold fast to his evenly distributed fascination with the idiocy of mankind; blandly viewing the world as a mélange of color; the curious behavior of souls; and, of course, The Book Thief.

The main character, Liesel, seems to mirror Death's inquisitive interests by way of her singular obsession with the power of words. In a time and place where words are the ultimate opiate, one can draw parallels between the way that she is bewitched by books and that the nation is by propaganda. Adolf Hitler figures prominently within this metaphor and is literally illustrated as such at some point.

The one disturbing thing about this book was that I found it shelved in the Young Readers section of my local Barnes & Noble and it's listed the same way on their web site. Very little about this book, with the exception of the main character starting out at nine years of age, seems appropriate for children. Even with a clear understanding of the vocabulary used, I don't see how they could possibly grasp the depth of this narrative. Nonetheless, it was a good read (no pun intended)....less

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Lucy rated it:

02/10/08

Read in February, 2008

Here it is, only February, and I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to read a better book this year.

I only recently heard about The Book Thief when a friend mentioned it on her blog. She and several others gave it such a strong review that I looked it up here on Goodreads. I was a little dismayed when I learned it was set in Nazi Germany, because, well...I wasn't sure what else could be written about that time that hadn't already been said, and said well by many different authors.

I'm so ...more Here it is, only February, and I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to read a better book this year.

I only recently heard about The Book Thief when a friend mentioned it on her blog. She and several others gave it such a strong review that I looked it up here on Goodreads. I was a little dismayed when I learned it was set in Nazi Germany, because, well...I wasn't sure what else could be written about that time that hadn't already been said, and said well by many different authors.

I'm so glad I didn't let that thought stop me. This is a quirky book. The narrator is Death, and death isn't a very typical story teller. There are these abrupt bold statements centered throughout the pages when Death feels further information is necessary. They bothered me at first because I couldn't get into my normal rhythm. And, sometimes, his little side comments seemed slightly irreverent. Wait, books don't do this. Not books about the holocaust and Nazi Germany. But this book did, and once I got used to it, I loved Death's little insights.

My favorite thing about this book is it's fairness about one of the most unfair times in human history. The unbelievably complicated situation that the German people were in, their motives, their fear, even their ignorance is not necessarily defended, but explained. Their story is told through Liesel, a young girl who watches her brother die on a train as she is being taken to live with foster parents. After her brother is buried, she snatches a book left in the snow called, The Gravediggers Handbook. Unable to read, she hides the book in her bed until her gentle and loving foster father finds it and uses it to teach her how.

It isn't really about the Germans and the Jews....it's about our human instincts to survive and our race towards death. Death has a really interesting perspective, which lends itself to many quote worthy statements.. His viewpoint (and I'm just assigning gender to him, I'm not sure he actually does) is a troubling one, a compassionate one, an irreverent one and one that left me sobbing tears onto the pages at its end.

While I think this book is suitable for every reader, those easily offended might be troubled by some German profanity. However, in my opinion, not only is it necessary and relevant to the character's communication, it's in a foreign language...which doesn't really count.

I'm grateful this book crossed my path. It touched me....less

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furies rated it:

03/20/08

bookshelves: 2008, contemporaryfiction, history-memory, holocaust, wwii, young-adult

Read in March, 2008

recommended to furies by: chris.
recommends it for: leigh, tory, sab

i am so torn on how many stars to give this book . . . on the one hand, i thought it was a bit long, on the other, i haven't read a book which this much chutzpah in a long time (that didn't come out of the modernist period).

it's a story of a small village outside of munich during WWII. and it's narrated by death. death, who carries people's souls (it is never clear where) out of their bodies. death, who is often tired of working. death, whose heart goes in a circle, who is sometimes envious...more i am so torn on how many stars to give this book . . . on the one hand, i thought it was a bit long, on the other, i haven't read a book which this much chutzpah in a long time (that didn't come out of the modernist period).

it's a story of a small village outside of munich during WWII. and it's narrated by death. death, who carries people's souls (it is never clear where) out of their bodies. death, who is often tired of working. death, whose heart goes in a circle, who is sometimes envious of humans because after all, we can die. we can stop.

it's extremely clever and fairly brilliant. there are turns of phrase that made me want to scribble them down - at times, it's more like reading poetry than prose. the descriptions of the colors, of the sky, the way liesel gives max a cloud to help him get well. hans huberman's silver eyes, and rudy steiner's hair like lemons.

it did kind of reinvent the genre for me (the holocaust/WWII story, that is) and for that, i am super thrilled and grateful. there isn't another story like this that i've come across, and i think partly i read it so slowly because i didn't want it to end. the foreshadowing lets you know where the story is going quite clearly, but even so there are some surprises. what i think i loved best about the writing was that it took risks, it played with techniques like synethesia, a woman's voice could sound like suicide, and it never seemed forced or overdone, really.

because the whole story is about the importance of words. how an illiterate girl becomes the book thief, and how masses of germans were swayed by simple words, how writing words saved some and killed others. liesel's last trip to the library on grasse street pretty much broke my heart - how i understand, liesel!

(the interview with the author at the end is very enjoyable too. i would love to have lunch with him sometime, just to talk to someone else who thinks words have weight, and gave them literal weight in his story, weight and texture and sound and being.) ...less

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Elly rated it:

03/16/08

Read in March, 2008

I would like to preface this review by saying that not many books make me cry... but, unfortunately, that would be a big fat lie, as most books make me cry. So I'll begin by saying that not many books make me weep inconsolably at two in the morning. The Book Thief most certainly did.

Let me explain the four stars I've given The Book Thief. I took a long time reading this book. I felt it started strongly, finished fantastically, and kept momentum for the majority of its not insubstantial m...more I would like to preface this review by saying that not many books make me cry... but, unfortunately, that would be a big fat lie, as most books make me cry. So I'll begin by saying that not many books make me weep inconsolably at two in the morning. The Book Thief most certainly did.

Let me explain the four stars I've given The Book Thief. I took a long time reading this book. I felt it started strongly, finished fantastically, and kept momentum for the majority of its not insubstantial middle. The final star simply isn't there because the last third, before the finale, meandered. This book could have been cut down by a 100 pages, and I'd have read it in a much shorter time period, and I'd have loved it unconditionally, maybe to the point of it being one of my best evers. That didn't happen, and it really, really should have done.

With that said, try not to misunderstand me. Markus Zusak's depiction of Nazi Germany, through the eyes of Death, but also through the eyes of a little girl, is astounding in every other way. Death's narration doesn't feel false or contrived - this isn't a quirky plot point to gain commendations. No, it feels absolutely necessary in this far-reaching novel, where so much happens to so many people, that Death, surely, is the only person who can tell it with any degree of believability.

The aspect I liked most about The Book Thief was the light touch of believable relationships. It's Liesel's relationships that keep the book by turns humorous and heartbreaking; her relationship with her foster parents, with Rudy (by far my favourite character; just a great example of the annoying kid that lives down your street and somehow breaks down your barriers), and of course, Max, the Jewish man in her basement that she brings various gifts to, including, most memorably of all, a snowman.

By the time I read the final few pages, I was torn between not wanting to read on, not wanting to go through that ordeal, wanting to see what would be salvaged, and crying too much to make a decision either way. I read on. The ending creeps up on you, comes as a cold chill down your spine, even though it's hinted at throughout, and the final line of the book is the saddest of all. But there's real joy in there too; not a placating few lines to comfort the reader, but unbidden joy....less

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Jennifer rated it:

05/03/08

bookshelves: gold-star-award, trt-reviews

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

THE BOOK THIEF is on of the most memorable books I've read in a long time. It takes place during World War II in Molching, Germany. It's the writing, the unusual narrator (death), and the characters sketched in vivid colors that make this novel so difficult to put down.

Meet Leisel, the book thief, whose first encounter with death occurs on a train with her mama and brother - on their way to meet her foster parents.

Meet Rosa Hubermann,...more Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

THE BOOK THIEF is on of the most memorable books I've read in a long time. It takes place during World War II in Molching, Germany. It's the writing, the unusual narrator (death), and the characters sketched in vivid colors that make this novel so difficult to put down.

Meet Leisel, the book thief, whose first encounter with death occurs on a train with her mama and brother - on their way to meet her foster parents.

Meet Rosa Hubermann, Leisel's new mama, whose rough, crude exterior can't hide the heart inside.

Meet Hans Hubermann, Leisel's firm foundation. The man who stays up with her after her nightmares, who teaches her to read her first stolen book, who finds empathy in a slice of stale bread.

Meet Max, a Jew, the shadow in the basement, a skeleton later seen marching, or more aptly, stumbling, down the road.

Meet Rudy, the lemon-haired Jesse Owens, Leisel's partner in crime and best friend, the one who yearns for Leisel's kiss.

Meet the Führer, the invisible, potent master of words.

Meet death, in a metal cockpit, on a snow-covered field mottled in red, hanging from a rafter at the end of a rope, sitting at a simple kitchen table, under a pile of rubble that used to be a home.

Markus Zusak fills the reader with vivid images of humans at war, humans led to the unthinkable by a force they cannot control. Some go willingly, others have no choice. Those left behind are merely attempting to survive each day as life crumbles around them. Leisel survives by stealing books.

As I read the final chapters of THE BOOK THIEF, I literally had to close the book to get my emotions under control before reading on to meet death. It was inevitable -- he would meet me at the end of the book. As I emerged from the story at the turning of the back cover, my reality felt so jarringly wrong. It was as though I went from a black and white silent movie to a new world: bright, free, and colorful. You cannot read this novel without feeling a resounding resolve that this should never, ever, happen again.

The writing is incredible. Mr. Zusak gave death such an unusual perspective. His descriptive phrases are nothing short of brilliant. THE BOOK THIEF is a powerful read that should not be missed by anyone, teen or adult! ...less

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Zinta rated it:

11/04/07

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in September, 2006

How rare the times that we read something entirely new and unique! It has been said that there are no new stories to tell, and I will not argue that. There really are only a few novel plots, although it is in our endless variations that we set ourselves apart as writers and word-artists, perhaps also as readers, in the manner and voice in which we tell the story. This is true for Markus Zusak in his creative storytelling of "The Book Thief."

The story is one of the oldest ones told...more How rare the times that we read something entirely new and unique! It has been said that there are no new stories to tell, and I will not argue that. There really are only a few novel plots, although it is in our endless variations that we set ourselves apart as writers and word-artists, perhaps also as readers, in the manner and voice in which we tell the story. This is true for Markus Zusak in his creative storytelling of "The Book Thief."

The story is one of the oldest ones told: the narrator is mankind's friend/nemesis, Death, ancient as Time itself, and the scenes Death (not without compassion and not without wry humor) narrates for us are those of human suffering and endurance, an eventual overcoming of conflicts and obstacles, a story of love pitted against hate, of the victory of the best in all of us over the worst in any of us. Zusak's main characters are a 9-year old girl, Liesel Meminger, her companion and young partner in crime, Rudy, and a Jewish refugee named Max hiding in the basement of the house where she lives, herself something of a refugee in Nazi Germany during WWII. A wide range of secondary characters fill in all gaps and keep us reading with fascination, e.g. Liesel's adoptive family, especially her cruel and ascerbic foster mother, Rosa, who on occasion cracks to show a bit of humanity; the mayor's deeply depressed wife, who quietly allows Liesel to "steal" her books; Liesel's young comrades in thievery, and many more.

It is hard to pinpoint what it is, precisely, that makes Zusak's work so unique. But I knew it, felt it, instantly, page one, first line. Voice, yes. Style. A few experimental approaches in his storytelling, such as illustrations inserted in the novel with all errors present, just as Max wrote the text and drew the pictures for his young friend, Liesel. Death's narration is unique, too, with occasional bolded quotes that give just the right amount of distance. There are many such details that all come together to form a story worth reading, worth hearing, worth understanding. It is the story of Liesel, a spunky little book thief, who does far more than steal good books. Liesel steals hearts. In our smallest, we often find our greatest heroes.

Highly recommended.
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Briynne rated it:

09/10/07

Read in September, 2007

Completely fantastic book, narrated by Death. The author does a fairly remarkable job capturing the darkness, poignancy, and sweeping tragedy of the Holocaust without ever becoming preachy. It helps that all the characters are German, which I think it generally seen as a no-go for books dealing with WWII. The book makes the interesting and really under-represented point that not all the Germans were monsters; I think that in our terror of appearing as apologists or deniers or what happened du...more

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