The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak
Historical Fiction
Reviewed by P. Perkins
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
The year is 1939. You are not even 10 years old. Your brother has just died. They (the Nazis) are taking your mother away. This is not a happy story.
Such is the life of Liesel Meminger when Rosa and Hans Hubermann take her in. She has nightmares featuring her brother and/or mother every night. That night she found a book on the ground and took it, hence the title. This will not be the only book she steals. She will make a friend, take comfort in her foster family, especially her Papa, and will harbor a Jew in her basement. Her poor, hungry family will struggle to survive. More books will be stolen.
This book is amazing. The way the author describes things is like no other author. He chooses Death to be the narrator, which adds a whole different point of view to the storyline. There is a lot of flashbacks and there is no way you can understand the prologue, because I read it several times and it doesn’t make sense until you get further in the story. But the moment you do its hooks itself into you and you’ll only pull it out when you are finished. I would recommend this to people who like good sad novels. You’ve probably never read a story like this.
