The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

Here is a story narrated by Death himself (yes, I will boldly assume that Death in this particular work of fiction is a he). This is really all it takes to get me interested. I had very high hopes for the story - in part due to the accolades the book received - and for once was not disappointed.

For the most part, Death stays in the background and lets the story of young Liesel, the 'book thief' in the title, unfold. But every once in a while, there are short segments of morbidity and, curiously, much regret voiced by Death.

The story it set in Germany and in 1930s, obviously covering the years leading up to WW II and all the horrors that brought forward. But other than many other stories set in that period it is not so much about the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people, even though there is an underlying hint of it. Here we get the perspective of a young German girl (strangely enough not Catholic) seperated from her family. She lives in relative safety in a Munich suburb.

The rift the war brings into her foster family, the Hubermanns, is that their son is a staunch Hitlerite, suggesting Liesel read Mein Kampf instead of the books she prefers, while the parents hide a Jew, MaxVandenburg, for as long as they can.

This is a great book. What's more, it made me look into what Markus Zusak has written beside this, which led me to also read his I Am the Messenger, which is equally good.

9/10