The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Reviewed by Ben F.
Grade 11

A Small Fact: You are going to die. So begins the tale of Liesel Meminger, the Book Thief, narrated by Death himself; the story of a girl in Nazi Germany whose world will never be the same.

Liesel is an orphan in a world at war, adopted by warm-hearted accordionist Hans Hubermann and his stringent wife Rosa into their life on Himmel Street. Liesel's only possession is a book taken from the tomb of her brother, The Gravedigger’s Handbook. Set apart by her ancestry in a post-World War I Germany, Liesel finds friendship with neighborhood scoundrel Rudy Steiner, and education through her adoptive father. Being taught in secret by Hans to read her stolen books, she soon develops an immense appreciation for words and their descriptive power. But everything changes once the Hubermann’s must hide Max, a Jewish fist-fighter, from their Nazi community, a man who will define the way Liesel sees her world. As the years go by, Liesel and Max become close friends and their secret is kept, but every secret must come to an end. Death, after all, forgets none.

I have read few historical fiction books in my time, and even fewer as influential as The Book Thief. As a story told through Death’s eyes, I gained a compelling window into the lives of a family that must constantly mask its beliefs from those of their Nazi-supporting neighbors. The stress of a warring nation is mirrored in the little people of Himmel Street; a much clearer picture than any history text. Death is a simple narrator, patient, agreeable, but painfully straightforward in the passing of characters.

Readers can expect to be emotionally pulled and prodded through every page of this heart-wrenchingly honest tale. Needless to say, The Book Thief is not for the young, with intense themes and provoking questions that only adolescents and above will comprehend and appreciate. Despite the turmoil of the era, violence and bloodshed are minimal, and the higher age rating is due simply to the intellectual age of the book itself. Recommended to readers of historical fiction, books about the Holocaust, dramas, and those who seek other ways to look at the world.