The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief is a work of genius, a book overflowing with beauty and brutality, ugliness and compassion.  This poignant and heartbreaking story is told by none other than death himself.  Zusak’s writing is smooth, lyrical, and poetic.  I found myself rushing to the computer after finishing to write about what I’d read.

The story begins with an introduction from Death.  He speaks about the constant demand of his job, the long hours with no vacations, and the colors of the human souls he carries away.  Death confides that his only vacation comes in the form of distraction.  Enter Liesel, the book thief, and Death’s little distraction.  Liesel, her brother, and mother travel by train to Molching, Germany.  For reasons that Liesel cannot understand at the time, she will be handed over to kindhearted foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hauberman.  On the train ride through Germany, Liesel’s brother begins to cough and stops breathing.  When our narrator steps forward to take the boy’s soul, he is distracted by the girl, and his curiosity causes him to linger and watch.

At her brother’s graveside she steals her first book, The Grave Diggers Handbook.  Over the years Liesel will steal 6 books and be given 8.  Ten of these books will tell her story and help the reader understand her life.  Liesel is infatuated with words.  Her Papa will teach her to read them, and she will both love them and hate them.  Her books and her words will provide comfort and distraction during anxious times, form unlikely friendships, and help as she administers all night vigils or reads to those who have lost a son.   A clever observation is made by Zusak as he shows how Hitler’s greatest ability was his talent with using words.  He shows how Hitler uses words to rise to power and create his Nazi Germany.  Without words Hitler’s evil could not have spread. 

Make no mistake, this story is about death.  It is told by Death, and showcases the brutal heart wrenching times of World War II in Nazi Germany.  Death and brutality are a consistent backdrop as Liesel’s story unfolds.  And yet her life is beautiful.  As much as this book is about death and destruction, it is also about compassion and beauty.  It shows a side of World War II and the Germans who lived through these times that I have not seen before.  I felt I was able to take a glimpse into this small town outside of Munich and see what is was like for the average German citizen trying to survive Hitler’s reign.

Listed below are a few quotes from the book that I wanted to point out.

As Liesel reflects on the people that have been ripped out of her life by the Fuhrer and his infectious words:

“She had watched a bomber pilot die in a metal case.  She had seen a Jewish man who had twice given her the most beautiful pages of her life marched to a concentration camp.  And at the center of all of it, she saw the Fuhrer shouting his words and passing them around….The words.  Why did they have to exist?  Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this.  Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing.  There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or worldly tricks to make us feel better…She said it audibly now, ‘What good are the words?’”

As she deals with her anger and the unfairness of her friend Max being taken to a concentration camp and her friend’s father being taken off to war, leaving behind his wife and 6 hungry children:

“Don’t make me happy.  Please, don’t fill me up and let me think that something good can come out of any of this.  Look at my bruises.  Look at this graze.  Do you see the graze inside of me?  Do you see it growing before your very eyes, eroding me?  I don’t want to hope for anything anymore.  I don’t want to pray that Max is alive and safe.  Or Alex Steiner.  Because the world does not deserve them.”

Liesel is awakened in the middle of the night after her foster papa has been taken off to war and witnesses her mama cradling the accordion he used to bring to life.

“Liesel watched.  She knew that for the next few days Mama would be walking around with the imprint of an accordion on her body.  There was an acknowledgement that there was great beauty in what she was currently witnessing, and she chose not to disturb it.”

Irony from the narrator:

“It kills me sometimes how people die.”

The wonderful things in Liesel’s life are her Papa and Mama, Rudy Steiner aka Jesse Owens, Max Vandenburg, the mayor’s wife, and the words.  And although the quotes I have pointed out are depressing, the book did not weigh me down or depress me.  The Book Thief is one of those books that makes me proud to be a book pusher.  To all of those people who refuse to give young adult literature a second glance, I say consider The Book Thief.