The Book Thief

In The Book Thief, Zusak's narrator engages the young reader immediately with sensory images (color) and humor. The age of the main character, Liesel, may be the lower limit for the reader of the novel, a good thing to keep in mind for parents who want to read the book with their children. For the characters in the story, reading aloud to family and friends is important as they huddle in a neighbor's basement during air raids. There is no upper limit of reader age for the enjoyment of the book.

The story matures with the characters' development allowing Zusak to introduce images and ideas that are increasingly realistic and disturbing. Strong emotions develop in readers of all ages relating to universal themes of love, loss, devastation, and hope. As time passes, the books Liesel steals in the novel involve increasingly complex ideas about what morality means in an apparently chaotic world.

In many works of art the setting of world war plays a key function in character development. A common denominator is that wars provide an opportunity for the spirit of love to flourish. Although fearful events occur in the lives of Liesel and her friends and family, a life sustaining connection between them is realized and persists. The narrator is astonished by this vital interdependence but is not sentimentally impressed. His/Her preoccupation is the harvesting of souls that are pure and good regardless of the social roles played during people's lives.

The Book Thief provides a wonderful opportunity for families to read aloud and discuss the episodes of the book. Like Liesel, this type of communication can be a uniting experience of shared emotions and can lead to an understanding of the amazing continuity of humanity. Between the horror of the holocaust and the idealized life of a quiet village heroes choose to emerge. Readers of all ages can learn to understand the transcending power of the written word to describe and value our common fate.

The book arrived in good time and in excellent condition. It is a remarkable read.

I teach a college class on young adult literature, and that is what led me to this book. While this book is perfectly acceptable as young adult, I'm afraid that classification will scare away a lot of adult readers who would enjoy this book. In fact to truly appreciate it, you might benefit from a more complete knowledge of WWII than a lot of young people have. The style of the writing is unconventional and that might also make it more appealing to sophisticated readers of any age. I'm not certain the sylistic quirks such as the bold face listing are necessary or affectations. All that aside it is a fascinating story with interesting characters that defies preconceptions and works on many levels. For me it addresses the question of how the people under Hitler's rule could allow such a thing to happen. The power of books and words, the definition of family, sense of identity, and ownership are other themes that are explored.

This is a powerfully moving story, beautifully written. Your heart will break by the end, if it wasn't already broken before that. The writing, oh, the writing. Exquisitely told by the sensitive, omniscient Death, who is haunted by us humans.

"Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps at the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower." p.340

This novel is an eye opener about what life was like for Germans under Hitler during WWII. Clearly the Huberman family was extremely ordinary and yet wonderfully out of the ordinary at the same time. This ordinary German family had a son fighting on the Russian front while they simultaneously hid a Jew in their cellar. The power of this book lies in its out of the ordinary perspective (as told by the grim reaper)about very ordinary people. And ordinary people can do exceptional things, accomplish extraordinary feats, and make one proud to be a member of the human race. Under Hitler, life was hell in Germany for many good Germans, too. This powerful novel explores in depth the life of one of those remarkable families. Like Bernhard Schlink's "The Reader," "The book thief," makes one rethink one's stereotypical image of the heartless, guilty Germans of WWII. It offers an explanation for why condeming an entire people for any reason is not acceptable. Good souls exist in all settings in virtually all times.