The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak’s unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by … existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she 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.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
From the Hardcover edition.
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If you interested in WWII then you will be interested in this cause it is amazing
This book was incredible. Started off kind of weird until I realized it was being narrated by death. At the end of the story I cried! It’s amazing how a piece of fiction can move one to tears! Everyone I talked to who read this book said the same thing. That they cried over the ending. I’m sure glad I read this book!
I almost feel I shouldn’t be writing this review until I’ve had more time to process, however then maybe it wouldn’t be as honest. This book moved me more than a book has in a long time. Although fiction, this stuff really happened in our history and that makes it so much more poignant of a read. I was drawn into Liesel’s world, I loved her Papa, I adored Max, I even loved Rudy. The idea of someone stealing books intrigued me from the onset, being a lover of books as I am, I could easily imagine myself in a time period where they weren’t easy to come by and being tempted to do just that. But this book was about so much more than the books. It was about learning to make your own decisions and judgements not following blindly what anyone, even your government, tell you. It was about loss and the will or lack of will to go on from that. It was about honor and hope and sharing that hope with others. And above all else, for me at least, it was about learning from our past. I know I haven’t done the book justice, but it’s definitely a must read.
A quite long book, but extremely thought-provoking and poetic in its prose. The narrator, Death, is an intriguing “character” in his own right, and though he has a duty to perform–to collect souls which have died–he is dispassionate rather than cruel about it. The Holocaust story here is sobering, yet there are moments of sweetness, hope, and joy.
If you haven’t read this yet, get on it! It’s a great story about Nazi occupation and the human response. It’s so beautifully written that I found myself re-reading phrases that were just so eloquent I wanted to feel them in my mouth and mind over and over.
This book builds a wonderful story within Nazi Germany. Filled with wonderful characters, this book is a must-read for all.
The Book Theif is captivating from start to finish. If I could grab five minutes of uninterrupted time, the book was open. I honestly felt the raw emotion of grief, her aloneness as well her moments of joy, even verbalizing anger towards the bully’s, and had to take some time to grasp wars devastation as novel approached its end. I have been wanting a book to transport me to another place and time and “The Book Theif” certainly delivered.