Published by Alfred A. Knopf Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, War, young adult
Format: Hardcover
This is my all time favorite book! I thought Zusak hit it out of the ballpark with this book. It was beautiful, it was sad, it was poetic. It was all things that books should be. It was simply divine. I actually read this very fast and then got mad that I read it so fast because I did not want it to end. I loved the characters. This book made me think, feel, cry and cheer for the characters. There is such beauty in this book. A must read for anyone who loves to read.
This book is set during WWII Germany and tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Her younger brother has died and her mother has been “taken away.” She has been taken in by a German couple who are scraping out a meager existence. Liesel learns to read with the help of her accordion playing foster father. She develops a love of books and cannot help stealing them when the opportunity presents itself. She forms a closed relationship with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. Liesel also forms another close friendship with a boy who has hair the color of lemons, Rudy Steiner. Two people who will have an impact on her life. “The Book Thief” is narrated by Death. It’s an unlikely narrator, but a very appropriate one for a book set during the Holocaust.
