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.
more
An awesome read!!!
In this Historical Fiction, your entire world crumbles and reforms. The reality of the story is so heartbreaking, you can’t help but fall in love with it. I absolutely recommend reading this book. It broke my heart in the most wonderful way. I will never forget the character and the message behind them.
This is on my personal top 10 list of best books ever written
A classic that everyone should read once, I read once a year.
An exceptional book.
Excellent book. Excellent writing and story. The characters will haunt you.
The author did a great job of coming up with a well written, unique perspective. The wording was absolutely beautiful.
Markus Zusak uses a very original style of writing for this story. I have never come across anything quite like it before.
As for the story, I actually ended up feeling very sorry for Death. How he managed to narrate a book of over 500 pages, I just can’t imagine. The poor guy is completely blocked out with his work; until eternity. Personally, I feel that I am far too busy to write a book, and I have a life of leisure relative to that of the old Grim Reaper!
The book thief, Liesel Meminger, is fostered by the Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching, near Munich, during World War II. She interacts with much of the local community, and her best friend Rudy, who comically impersonates the great Jesse Owens and spends much of his time trying to steal a kiss from Liesel, features heavily. Apart from her foster family, the other main characters in Liesel’s life include the Jewish fist-fighter, Max Vandenburg, who hides in the family’s cellar, and the mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann.
Death reveals his character, and his lack of understanding of both his mission on Earth and the strange behaviour of the human race, through comments which are littered throughout the text. Some of these are very amusing, others are downright thought-provoking. We are told, early on, that Rudy will be tragically killed before the story is complete, but this takes nothing from the intensity of emotions that run through the reader’s mind as the pages are turned. In fact, I would say that this knowledge probably increases the strength of feeling.
As the title implies, Liesel steals books from time to time, and these become part of her chronicle.
The only real gripe that I have with this book is that the publishers have tried to add realism to the inclusion of a hand-written short story, by illustrating it with ridiculously small and unreadable font. I struggled to read this enchanting section of the book with my fifty-four year old eyes peering through my reading glasses and a magnifying glass. I am sure that it was never the author’s intention to distract me from this beautifully presented story with bad formatting, but the publishers have a lot to answer for.
All said and done, I loved this book with its original style and its unique approach to relating the well-worn horrors of WWII. Superb!
Another World War II book with a unique premise! I got to hear the author speak about it once, and that made me love the book all the more. This is one that easily connects to teens as well as to adults. A great option for a family book club choice!
I think it’s kinda boring but I believe that it is kinda interesting
This book evoked contradictory emotions. The story itself was nothing special or memorable, but rather very ordinary, like daily life in that time frame probably could have been and how a child would cope with it. But throughout the whole story there were hidden beautifully described situations that illustrate true life in its full ugliness. Such a shame that there weren’t more of them.
It was also refreshing, but at the same time very shallow and distant to experience everything through the eyes of Death or more accurate through the memories of Death.
Wonderful book. Wish I could read it again for the first time. I keep thinking about it. That is a sign of a great book.
My very favorite book of all time. So important. What kind of world do we have now? We must learn from the past.
Great characters. Great Story.
The best book based on world war 2…I mean there are so many books out there based on WW2, but this book is really hard to forget.
Had to read it for my AP English class a few years back and I absolutely loved it! I like reading anything centering around WWII and the book being narrated by Death’s perspective is an interesting twist from a lot of the other books I’ve read. My class liked the book so much that a handful of us and our teacher went to the movies after class one day to see the movie when it came out! Can’t wait to reread it when I have time.
This is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. The story itself is amazing with realistic characters that latch onto your heart. Set in Nazi Germany, the author expertly weaves realistic scenarios in with the more light hearted story of Liesel. The book is not tragedy after tragedy but there is always the lingering feeling of the fear and terror of the war.
The best part of the book in my opinion is Death, the character. Everyone likes to portray death as this terrible thing but death is just….a thing. It is something no one can outrun, no matter how small and young. Life isn’t fair and Death sees it that way. He wants the reader to see it that There is beautiful descriptions of Death seeing the world in colors and his own take on the war. Such wonderful writing.
This book is one where the tissues should be near but it is worth it for this story.
Hard to get used to the narrative style but well worth the effort.
An excellent piece of work! This a remarkable story that brings serious stuff to life with lots of wit and a little humor.
This book brought me tears, laughter, secret smiles, and every thing you could ask for from a book. I heard information that I knew that I never thought I would need to know, which I loved. This book was great, absolutely truly wonderful.