Monday, September 19, 2011

The Book Thief

Summery:
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she discovers something she can't resist- books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found.
With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.



 Review:
Wow, that is about all I can say. This book takes place in Nazi Germany and we meet our main character as her brother dies. But this is not the typical Nazi Germany, our main character is not Jewish. She is a little girl who is given up because her mother can no longer care for her or her brother. But when her brother dies and is buried she picks up a book dropped by one of the grave diggers, this is the book that starts her career as a book thief.

This book starts slowly and is a little strange our narrator is Death, who drops hints and gives away details all through the book. But you slowly fall in love with the characters and begin to care so much about them, and at the end of this book I was in tears. This is not a happy ever after, but worth the read never the less.

1 comment:

  1. One of my all-time faves: the book I wish I'd written myself! You're so right--it is pure genius.

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