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

Dec 01, 2012 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Beautifully crafted with a lyrical appeal... it has the power to take your breath away.
This haunting and bittersweet Holocaust-themed tale is about an impoverished young girl who has a passion for books. Set in World War II Germany, and narrated by Death, the all-knowing and all-seeing narrator, the story is funny, sad, scary and unforgettable!

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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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Mar 26, 2015 Patricia rated it liked it

I am ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, the imagery and figurative language was creative and imaginative. On the other hand, I'm left wondering why this was told from the point of view of death. At the end, when you read an excerpt from the same story from Liesel's point of view, it felt so much more 'right'. I'm sure he had a purpose, but it was lost on me. Having said that, the story of WWII with a German perspective was a novelty. We commonly get the story from the Jewish perspectiv ...more

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May 21, 2013 Nancy Johnson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Very ingenious story. Loved the main characters, the Book Thief and her foster parents. Novel take on a WWII story. I think I would have liked it better reading it in my own voice in head than the narrator's. The accent was a bit off-putting for me. If only I had the time to read as I used to. ...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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Mar 17, 2022 K. M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ww2-fiction

I really enjoyed this book, it was sweet and sad, funny and heartbreaking. I found myself calling people Saumensch and Saukerl under my breath, and loving Liesel and Rudy a little more with every turned page, but there were some things that bothered me.

I’m not quite sure why some YA authors think they can play fast-and-loose with history but you can’t. This is probably just me, but I think if you’re going to write a historical fiction, you need to stay as close to reality as possible. I feel st ...more

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Aug 19, 2017 Laura-Anne Wright rated it it was amazing

This book is devastatingly beautiful. It reminds you of the kindness of the human heart and of the evil that can exist in the world. It is raw and open and full of exquisite writing that pulls you in to the story and just rips your heart to pieces. I was sobbing by the end and I think one is meant to sob when they read this novel. I will carry this story and these characters in my heart for a long time to come.

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Oct 02, 2024 Laura D rated it it was ok

A fresh way of telling the well-known horrors of Nazi Germany, which is commendable. Yet, the told narrative style is flat and the callouts kept pulling me out of the story. I would have preferred to know what Liesel was thinking about her experience, instead of what Death was thinking about her.

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