Markus
Zusak’s The Book Thief is usually
shelved in the young adult section at the bookstore and in the library. In fact, I know of many schools that teach it
in the 8th or 9th grade.
However, PLEASE do not let that keep you from reading this wonderful novel. For in The
Book Thief, you won’t find a wizard, vampire, or bow and arrow in sight;
what you will find is Death as the narrator and one of the most beautifully
written (and heartbreaking) books of the modern time. It is literature….and it is literature at its
very best.
Where
do I begin with how much I loved this book?
Let’s start with Death, the character who takes on this extraordinary
journey, telling us the story of Liesel, a girl growing up in Germany during
the Holocaust. At a young age, Liesel
saw her brother die, just as the both of them were on their way to a foster
home. At the cemetery, Liesel picked up
her first book…one that fell out of a gravedigger’s pocket. After a tough beginning, she grew to love her
new parents, especially Papa. When a
Jewish man shows up at the door, Mama and Papa take him in to hide in the
basement. Liesel and Max develop a
friendship that’s based on their love of words.
Max even paints over his copy of Mein
Kampf (yes, a Jewish man had the book but used it for a completely
different purpose), turning an absolutely hated book into something completely
different.
Throughout
the story, Death shows us all of Liesel’s relationships during one of the most
tragic times in history. Zusak does this
in the most imaginative way; Death, knowing everything that is going to happen,
often tells us the ending first in the most shocking matter-of-fact way. Only then does he go back to fill in the
blanks of what happened. Of course, most
of us hate when someone tells us the ending before we even read the story, but
I promise you, in Zusak’s magical hands, it works beautifully.
Between
the lyrical language and heartbreaking content, Zusak has written one of the
most powerful books I have ever read. It
will stay with me for a long time.
