BOOK THIEF, THE [B](REI) Paperback – January 1, 2016

The Book ThiefThis is a beautifully balanced piece of storytelling by a young Australian writer: Marcus Zusak. The book is narrated by death himself. Death is rendered vividly. He is a lonely, haunted being who is drawn to children, who has had a lot of time to contemplate human nature and wonder about it. We are introduced to this narrator in the beginning and he is with us till the very end. It gives away the end and still wants you to keep reading on.The narrative is easy flowing with glimpses of what is yet to come: sometimes misleading, sometimes all too true. We meet all shades of Germans, from truly committed Nazis to the likes of poor Hans Hubermann who hides a Jew in the basement of his very modest home. I was humbled by the realization that most of us are incapable of doing what noble souls Hans and Rosa do for saving the human race. This is what makes this novel truly remarkable.The author says he was inspired by two real-life events related to him by his German parents: the bombing of Munich, and a teenage boy offering bread to an emaciated, withered Jew being marched through the streets. Both the boy and Jewish prisoner were whipped by a soldier while hapless crowd looked on! It is also the way in which Zusak combines such terrible events with truly believable characters and the details of everyday life in Nazi Germany. All this made The Book Thief so special for me.In addition to the protagonist Liesel (the book thief of the title), there are some very important characters in the story. Those who particularly stood out for me are Rudy Steiner, a close friend of Liesel who is obsessed with the black athlete Jesse Owens. Ilsa Hermann, the mayor's wife, who has never recovered from the loss of her own son. Liesel's adoptive parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann and of course Max Vandenburg the Jew decorator whose father had saved Hans’ life during the first world war when they are both German soldiers. The growing relationships between Hubermanns and Liesel and, later, Liesel and Max Vandenburg are central to the plot. Max writes and illustrates a strangely beautiful short story for Liesel over whitewashed pages from a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf (the original print can still be seen through the paint). The powerful short story and illustrations almost broke my heart.Hans, who can’t read very well himself, teaches Liesel to read. Liesel is effectively an orphan. She never knew her father. Her mother disappears after delivering her to her new foster parents. Her younger brother died on the train to Molching where the foster parents live. Death first encounters nine-year-old Liesel when her brother dies. It (death) hangs around long enough to watch Liesel steal her first book - The Gravedigger's Handbook, left lying in the snow by her brother's grave. Death has in his possession (I have always considered death as ‘she’) the book Leisel wrote about 1939 to 1943. In a way, they are both book thieves. Liesel steals randomly at first, and later more methodically. But she's never greedy. Death pockets Liesel's notebook after she leaves it, forgotten in her grief, amongst the destruction that was once her street, her home, her mama and papa. Death carries the book with him.As I went through the book I kept feeling how real Liesel was! She was a child living a child's life. A life that has chores, soccer in the street, stolen pleasures, school fights, sudden passions and a full heart! Around her bombs are dropped, maimed veterans hang themselves, bereaved parents move like ghosts, Gestapo take children away and the dirty skeletons of Jews are paraded through the town.However, there are a number of things that prevent this book from being all-out depressing. It is very powerful from the beginning but not morbid. A lively humor peeks through the pages. (a comment about German’s loving pigs, the childish chats between Rudi and Liesel). Furthermore, the vivid descriptions as well as the richness of the characters lift your spirits up. In this balanced story, ordinary Germans - those with blond hair and blue eyes are as much at risk of losing their lives, or are being persecuted, as the Jews themselves. It made me cry.

A vivid narration by Death Himself, this book chronicles the life story of a German girl (the eponymous Book Thief) during the WWII..yes, the Nazi era. Each book she steals depicts an important point in her life in her own history, an important lesson learned, a challenge overcome by her or an important person in her life. This is not a story of a revolution caused by some great name, but a simple story of a child who shakes the simple lives around her with her simple words in a tremendous way. The perspective of the story is to highlight the suffering of the poorest sections of the Nazi society through the eyes of Death with the clear focus being this child who happens to be a book thief. But this thief is remarkable- from her struggle to let go of the grim dreams seeded from her brother's death and mother's abandonment to her growing love for her foster parents, from her gradual victory over the words that were once her enemy to her beautiful friendship with Rudy and Max. She grows so much throughout the book and survives so much that slowly you start suffering everything with her, with Death. Whatever I write in the review cannot justify the way the narration touches you. Just go and read it, you will understand what I mean.On an end note, Death, you are some narrator!

I liked this story, it was not gripping but plodded along nicely. The story is about relationships between people from different backgrounds built on a shared love of reading. We see Liesel grow and mature against the background of the harshness of war. I like that it was told from the German side though all the Germans in this story appeared to be pro-Jewish. I didn't like that death was the narrator - became almost a likeable character at times which didn't feel right. I didn't like all the subtexts and 'asides' preparing us for what was in the next chapter. Maybe this is because this book is aimed at teenagers. What really took from this book was being told how long someone had left to live and being told someone would die in the next chapter and THEN what the build up to the event was. This confused me especially as characters I thought were dead started re-appearing in the book. As another reader pointed out we don't need to be prepared for suspense, that's part of the enjoyment of reading. This is probably why the story plodded along when it could have been more exciting. Also everything was described as a colour - I didn't really get that. So if you can put all that aside then it's a great read!

Once you pick up this book and open its fantastical pages, you won’t be able to put it down. Soak it in. Learn from the mistakes and misfortune of our ancestors. Allow your own imagination to take you to places you e never been before. War torn countries and their exhausted populations. The beauty of this book is the spirit of hope that just won’t be extinguished. It is influential in teaching us that only in the darkest night can you see the light of all the stars.