The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Dec 2007 · Sold by Knopf Books for Young Readers

About this ebook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME • A NEW YORK TIMES READER TOP 100 PICK FOR BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. 

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
 
“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times
 
“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today

DON’T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK’S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF.

Ratings and reviews

Death does not take a holiday in The Book Thief. Instead, he takes center stage as the narrator of this riveting fable like tale. Though the story unfolds in Nazi Germany amidst the persecution of the Jews & the brainwashing of the German populace, this story could really occur in any totalitarian state that triumphs evil as the national anthem. Here, as our protagonists struggle to survive, we come to meet & marvel at a cast of characters who break our hearts because they have so much soul. Our main character, a young girl given up by her mother to an older German couple, copes by stealing books.The entire family adds an additional burden to their already overwhelming challenges by sheltering a Jew hiding from the Germans. They take him into their impoverished home, hiding him in a corner of their minuscule basement, and in doing so, expose themselves to the deadly retribution of the Nazi dictatorship. And all the while, Death is speaking to us directly, sharing asides about the plot, almost acting as a plot spoiler, removing the mystery about the fate of some of our beloved characters. He talks to us about the weight of souls, some so heavy. others so light. Almost in a lament he shares how busy he is during this time of terrible calamity. This is not a vengeful death, not a demonic force that gleefully rejoices in his appointed tasks. No, he does so with almost a reluctant sense of obligation as he swoops in & carries away soul after soul at just the right time. By the novel's end we see him not as some dark angel carrying out a painful duty, but indeed, as God's messenger, catching souls as they drift off, freed from their human mooring. And in that same athletic stretch The Book Thief catches our own souls, holding them aloft for us to wonder in awe.

This is very much an adult book, it just happens to have a young girl as the main character. The setting is Nazi Germany during the second World War and the story is told by the personified spirit of Death; a sympathetic Death who is worn out and tired from years of gathering up the souls of the recently departed. Death is so discouraged by man's inhumanity to man that when he sees something special in young Liesle Meminger, the book thief, against his better judgment he feels something for her and follows her story over the years. The story begins in 1939 and Liesel is nine, almost ten-years-old. She has had a miserable life by anyone’s standards, but she’s resilient. She lives with her foster parents in a poor suburb of Munich Germany next-door to Rudy Steiner. (READ: some facts about Rudy, pg. 48). Life is grim, but Liesel finds hope in spite of Hitler, in spite of poverty and in spite of fear. Liesel also discovers the power of words both to cause harm, as in Third Reich propaganda, and to heal, when her foster father and the Jewish man they hide in their basement help her learn to read. Death calls Liesel “a perpetual survivor --- an expert at being left behind.” I have never read a story about war and love and life and death that has broken my heart so completely.

Death is such a fantastic character! And the author paints pictures with words... Truly the best read I've had in a while.

About the author

Markus Zusak is the international bestselling author of six novels, including The Book Thief and most recently, Bridge of Clay. His work is translated into more than forty languages, and has spent more than a decade on the New York Times bestseller list, establishing Zusak as one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia.
All of Zusak’s books – including earlier titles, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, When Dogs Cry (also titled Getting the Girl), and The Messenger (or I am the Messenger) – have been awarded numerous honors around the world, ranging from literary prizes to readers choice awards to prizes voted on by booksellers.
In 2013, The Book Thief was made into a major motion picture, and in 2018 was voted one of America’s all-time favorite books, achieving the 14th position on the PBS Great American Read. Also in 2018, Bridge of Clay was selected as a best book of the year in publications ranging from Entertainment Weekly to the Wall Street Journal. 
Markus Zusak grew up in Sydney, Australia, and still lives there with his wife and two children.