Book Review: Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

Dec 19, 2007 Posted by Nancy Williams on Dec 19, 2007 in Fiction, Recommended Books | 0 comments

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Summary: A beautiful story of a young girl’s survival through the second World War. It is a story of hope, love and, most importantly, Death, who tells the story. The backdrop of Nazi Germany is exquisitely painted and the story is poetic and tragic at the same time. It is a work of art.

Pace: Magnificently written so the pace is almost irrelevant. You simply have to keep reading.
Main Characters: Liesel Meminger and Death
This book is like… Anne Frank and Jacob the Liar in poetry
Bookshop Shelf: Fiction
Pages: 560 pages
Rating: 10

The Book Tiger’s Review

The narrator of this story is Death. He (or she) thinks the fact that humans represent him with a scythe is amusing, he notices colours to keep him sane while he works, and he only wears a black cloak when it is cold. And it is Death who is charged with the responsibility of telling the story of Liesel Meminger, who arrives kicking and screaming at the house of the Hubermanns’ and learns to become a book thief.

After our narrator has introduced himself, he begins the story. It is 1939 and Death is soon to be very busy in Europe. Liesel is sent to live with her new foster parents due to a mysterious word – Kommunist – which had clearly incensed the Nazi government. She is 10 years old and over the next four years she experiences love, joy, an accordion, a Papa with storm grey eyes and a Mama who swears a lot, a hidden Jew, a lemon haired friend, and the joy of words and books.

Death chooses not to invite any surprises in the story. He says surprises bore him – he would rather we know what happens to Liesel early on, and then focus on how she gets there. This is no way detracts from the story – the tragedy at the end is not dampened in any way, and you feel the loss and agony of the girl, whose life is torn apart by a war in which none of her neighbours wanted any part. She had written her story down – and it was this which not only had saved her, but which Death had found and kept. It was because of this that the story was being told.

The book is written in a deceptively simple and beautiful manner. The narrator is entertaining, almost human, yet displays confusion and sadness at the folly of real human nature. Liesel herself shows strength and courage no matter what she experiences. And the backdrop of Nazism, anti-Semitism and life threatening risk for the sake of human compassion turns this into a story which can’t be read only once. The book is as much about words as it is about human spirit – and shows how words can not only heal but destroy and kill as well.

We are left to decide how the future between the time the story itself ends and the time that Liesel finally meets Death pans out. I wrote that part in my own head as the author chooses not to. But he doesn’t need to. The picture he has painted is simply stunning. The words he uses himself are artistic and expressive. A masterpiece of fiction which I will most definitely be reading again.

ISBN: 0-330-36426-X
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Year: 2005
Date finished: 18 December 2007

Buy via Amazon.co.uk: The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Buy via Amazon.com: The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

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