The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 552
Reason Read: Buddy Read
Rating:

My Thoughts

I tried to read this once before, but I only got to the end of Part 3. For some reason, I was having a hard time with it. I don’t know why. I’m glad I gave it a second chance because I ended up loving THE BOOK THIEF.

It was still very hard to read because of the subject matter. It’s not light or funny. It’s deep, thought-provoking, and extremely sad. Near the end, I was very angry and almost didn’t finish the book. But, I realized that is what Hitler did. He caused so much heartache, so much death, and so much sorrow that I felt I’d be doing Liesel Meminger a disservice if I didn’t finish her story.

I’ve never read a story about World Ward II from a German POV before. It’s always been from a Jewish POV or from the POV of the oppressed. What I didn’t realize is that most of the Germans were oppressed as well. Many of them drank Hitler’s kool-aid and helped cause death and heartache, but many were just trying to survive the horrific time they lived. They didn’t know how to live under Hitler’s rule. Some people, like Hans Hubermann and his family, did brave things like hide Jews and help them when they were being paraded to concentration camps, and they were punished for it. Their families were broken up. It was sad all around what Hitler did to his own people.

Markus Zusak’s words and writing style were a perfect way to tell this story. The imagery and the characters helped endear this story to me. Death couldn’t have been a better narrator than he was for a story like this. It made me feel far more than I thought I could. At one point, I even felt sorry for Death because he was doing what he was meant to do even if he didn’t want to do it.

I loved the power of words. I loved how THE BOOK THIEF showed that words are the reason for everything. Some words breed hate and chaos while others breed love and friendship and the more positive words are the ones that last, the ones that make life worth living and fighting for.