The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

After the terrible time I had with Moby Dick last week, I knew that my next read had to be something I would love. Luckily, I had my Then Versus Now Challenge to fall back on. I decided to revisit The Book Thief, a young adult historical fiction novel that I truly loved when I first read it in 2013.

The story centers around Liesel Meminger, a young German girl coming of age in Nazi Germany. Her life is thrown into disarray after her younger brother dies and she is surrendered by her mother to a foster family. Living in a new city with her new parents, Liesel begins stealing books to ease her pain. She steals her first one by random chance. She finds a copy of The Grave Digger's Handbook, dropped by a cemetery worker, at the grave site of her brother. At first she only takes it as a kind of souvenir, but when her foster father teaches her how to read it, Liesel comes to realize the healing power of words. Her desire to read becomes insatiable, and over time she takes more books from different places. However, she takes only what she needs and is never overly greedy with her thefts. As WWII rages on and times get tougher and tougher in her town, the books are her escape from reality and a link between her and her foster father. Eventually, she comes to write a book of her own describing these difficult years in her life.

One of the more remarkable aspects of this book is its narrator. The story is told by Death. As he walks throughout war torn Germany collecting souls, Liesel catches his interest. He finds her book in the street after a bombing and tells us her story, mixed in with his own observations on the simultaneous beauty and evil present in humanity. I've never read anything narrated like this before and I thought it was quite special the first time I read it. On my reread, I still really enjoyed experiencing the story from this perspective.

Simply put, The Book Thief is excellent. The writing is beautiful and the characters are compelling. I actually felt connected to each character, even the minor ones. Zusak did a skillful job of creating a sympathetic and three dimensional cast. There were a few parts where the plot was a little slow, mostly in the beginning of the novel, but the slow start is forgivable because the rest of the book is so strong.

What is hard about reading this book is bracing yourself for the end. The reader is told in the opening pages of the novel that Liesel's street is going to be bombed and that people will die. While we aren't let in on the specifics, we know it's going to be bad. Having this knowledge beforehand causes you to experience the strange sensation of really wanting to finish a great book while dreading what is going to happen at the end. While the ending does contain a little bit of hope, it is pretty devastating, and that stayed true for me on my second reading.

Much like the first time I experienced it, The Book Thief made me think and broke my heart. It's the kind of novel that stays with you for a long time, and it definitely remains one of my favorites. I'm excited to move onto Zusak's third novel, Bridge of Clay, next and see if that one will become a favorite too.


Challenge Tally
Then vs. Now: 9/27

Total Books Read in 2020: 36