The Book Thief

The Book Thief

Abby asked if I'd read this book.  The first time I picked it up and realized Death was the narrator I put it back on the shelf.  I thought about it, read reviews, understood it was tragic, sad and set in Germany during Hitler's time.  I left it on the shelf. I'd gone through a time in Junior High and High School reading everything about the holocaust and wondering how anything like that could have really ever happened.  I was young.

Then The Book Thief was  Cathy Gardner's choice for our book club. Cathy's recommendations are unfailingly good.   I read it in just a few days. 

As death describes it: 

"It's just a small story really, about, among other things:

*A girl

*Some words

*An accordionist

*Some fanatical Germans

*a Jewish fist fighter

*And quite a lot of thievery"

Liesel, left an orphan when her father is arrested for being a Communist and her mother disappears, watches her brother die and is placed in foster care.

Her resilience and her mere survival are incredible.  Her salvation comes through books.  Books she steals. 

The language and power of the story are completely  compelling.  Liesel and her foster family, the Jewish man they hide in the basement and  her friend Rudy struggle against oppression and fear and she finds, in words and in books a way to continue to live.

Markus Zusak will be in Provo at the Provo City Library, Saturday, March 26, 6:00 PM.   I'll post about his presentation.