The Book Thief in The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club

Jan 11, 2014 Jemima Pett rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, bookclub

I remember picking this book up in a store once or twice, reading the blurb on the back, and putting it down again. There was just something about it that didn’t appeal. Maybe I was being picky, so many people had raved about it, and the film was due out. So when it was my book club’s pick for May, I greeted it positively.

It is the story of a girl, Liesel,who is fostered with a family in Monching, Hitler’s birthplace, just before world war 2. It is a finely detailed adventure through the impacts ...more

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Dec 07, 2013 L.F. Falconer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: purchased

Such a terrible tale, beautifully written--terrible in the same way that all stories that pertain to this dark slice of history are terrible.

"She was a girl. In Nazi Germany. How fitting that she was discovering the power of words." These few lines from "The Book Thief," by Markus Zusak, best sum up the basic bones of the story. The rest is the meat that is best digested by each individual on their own.

The power of words. What initially captivated me was the unique style, relayed with such simpl ...more

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Jul 14, 2016 Roland Clarke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

I have no hesitation in standing alongside those readers that loved this book. Words are important to me as a writer and a reader, so I could feel for the title character, Liesel, and for all those swept in different directions by the power of the word.

On the one hand, the novel shows how easily the sweet insidious words of Hitler could sway so many ordinary people. Most of the characters are German citizens reacting like so many of us do…with knee-jerk responses. Life goes on. It’s too easy to I have no hesitation in standing alongside those readers that loved this book. Words are important to me as a writer and a reader, so I could feel for the title character, Liesel, and for all those swept in different directions by the power of the word.

On the one hand, the novel shows how easily the sweet insidious words of Hitler could sway so many ordinary people. Most of the characters are German citizens reacting like so many of us do…with knee-jerk responses. Life goes on. It’s too easy to sit back and then realise too late what is really going on. Sadly, just glancing at current politics, we haven’t learnt from those dark days.

On the other hand, words are the beacon of hope for Liesel and others. Books create possibilities, whether classics or stories written on the paint covered pages of Mein Kampf. They inspire.

“When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.”

Although the Holocaust is building in the background, and the plight of one particular Jew, Max, touches Liesel and our lives, this is a novel about the way that German people reacted to the events at that time. Markus Zusak might be Australian but his mother Lisa is originally from Germany and his father Helmut is from Austria. So they would have known about those times, and having had German friends, I know that the perspective of the citizens was similar to what Liesel experienced. And this novel is from the viewpoint of a child – well except for when Death paints the darker aspects of events, as he/it is always there, especially when the atrocities happen or a child dies senselessly.

Death is a tragic narrator, struggling to understand humanity and trying to take a caring approach to a distasteful job, because “even death has a heart”.

“Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words. I watched their love visions and freed them from their fear.”

Death’s observations enhance the unfolding story, and in places Death gets the best lines:
“The question is, what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?”

And then says, “I am haunted by Humans.” And Death is drawn to Liesel’s story in which there are so many rich characters, from Papa to Rudy Steiner to the Mayor’s Wife, and so many others.

In fact, there was so much to love, from poetic passages and images, to emotion wringing incidents, that I must re-read “The Book Thief”.

The final words must be Liesel’s, and to discover more pick up the novel.

“Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.”
...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Gael Lynch rated it it was amazing

This book is a life-changer. Forces you to empathize with the people who become the pawns of war/or the powerful people that control the destiny of others. Took me a bit to get into it, but once I did...I was with it all the way!

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Apr 05, 2017 Sharon Marie Himsl added it

Shelves: young-adult

A different novel with Death as the narrator. Wasn't sure if I would like this novel, but I did. It leaves an imprint on the heart, perhaps as much as The Diary of Anne Frank did when I first read as a girl at thirteen. Death shows us life in Nazi Germany through the eyes of a young German girl just trying to grow up in a difficult world. Food is in short supply, her family is hiding a Jewish man in their home, and books are a rare commodity. Her love of books becomes central to the story, movin ...more

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