The Book Thief

Finally, another book review! I'm sorry it's taken me a few weeks to give you my thoughts on more of the written word, but with preparing to move, then actually moving our stuff, and adjusting to our new 'home' (we're house-sitting) for the next few weeks, and trying to wrap up all the loose ends in Columbia while we simultaneously begin completing all the required-but-oh-so-annoying-to-do moving necessities (apply for every job possible in Louisville, transfer the title and tags, get new licenses, register to vote, change mailing address on everything ever, etc), I just haven't found too much time to read. But believe me, I would much rather be reading...

The Book Thief is a young adult novel written by Markus Zusak about a young foster child growing up in a small suburb of Munich in Nazi Germany. The story is related through the eyes of Death, which does not really produce as much of a morbid tone for the novel as you might expect. In fact, Death as a narrator provides a rather reflective and introspective view of not only the characters, but of the entire human race in general.

There are many books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, but rarely do authors take it upon themselves to write about German characters living within Nazi Germany; it forces the reader to realize that not all Germans, in fact, were in agreement with the Nazi regime and that, in fact, there were also German people who helped to hide Jewish people (and other groups the Nazis determined as inferior or problematic) from the SS, Gestapo, and even their neighbors. Even more difficult for us to imagine are the often-innocent German children living under the Nazi regime. Are we to blame such children for the actions of a nation? This book forces the reader to think about such things.

The book thief is Liesel, the young orphaned girl living with foster parents in Molching, a small town outside of Munich. As she learns to cope with her new environment, she escapes the difficulty by learning to read; her foster father is diligent to teach her, and her thirst for the written word is seemingly never quenched. Liesel quickly becomes friends with her next door neighbor, Rudy. Rudy helps Liesel adjust to life in her new home, but Liesel's life becomes even more confusing and dangerous when her foster parents agree to hide a German Jew- from Nazi officials and friends alike- in their basement. Despite all of their overt differences, Max and Liesel realize their similarities and form a deep friendship, helping each other to survive their confusion and pain.

This book truly is hauntingly beautiful. For a young adult book, the content is excellent; one could simply read the story as a good story, but if the reader digs deeper into the material, a great amount of truth about the human race can be learned. This book is bound to generate lots of excellent and thought-provoking discussion, especially after the reader contemplates the last line penned by Death:

I am haunted by humans.