The Book Thief

I got a signed copy of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief a few years ago at a children's booksellers dinner. With all the critical claim and its long reign on the bestsellers list, I was really looking forward to starting it. At first, I didn't think I was going to get into it. It's narrated by Death, which puts some distance between the reader and the characters. Not to mention gives the book a sinister mood--which is not hard, considering it's set in Nazi Germany. But by the end, I was deeply involved in the story and found it hard to put the book down.

The story follows Leisel Meminger, who is the titular book thief, as she is moved to a new town to live with a foster family when her own parents are accused of being Communists. Her brother dies on the journey, and she steals her first book, a gravedigger's guide, when they stop to bury him. She continues the habit, taking books whenever she can. She finds solace in the words--and helps calm those around her--by reading aloud during air raids and reading to a neighbor after she learns of her son's death in the war fields. She eventually begins writing her own story, which saves her life. This reverence for the written word is likely why the librarians went so nuts for the book and why it bears a Printz Honor seal, awarded by the American Library Association. But it's a nice touchstone for any book lover.

It is eye-opening to read a story that counts not just Jews among the War's victims. It does include Jewish characters and the uncertainty that came with the concentration camps, as it rightly should. But it shows the other victims, too: communists whether real or perceived, the country's children, and ordinary German citizens who didn't see eye to eye with the Nazi regime. The fact that we're seeing this all play out through the eyes of an adolescent girl makes it all the more heartbreaking.

While The Book Thief was published as a young adult novel, I think there's something here for everyone, and would highly recommend it. The unique narrator and uses of art--stories and sketches--throughout makes it stand out from other World War II literature.