The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 The Book Thief

Bibliography

Zusak, Markus. 2005.  The Book Thief.  Ill. by Trudy White.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.  ISBN 9780375842207.

Plot Summary

Liesel Meminger was a book thief, and her story was narrated by Death himself.  Liesel never knew her father, and her mother sent her and her brother away in 1939 to live with another German couple who could better provide for them, Hans and Rosa Huberman.  However, her brother did not survive the train ride, and Liesel arrived to Himmel Street alone and afraid.  She was well taken care of, and she formed a fast friendship with her accordion-playing foster father as well as the neighbor boy, Rudy Steiner.  Hans comforted Liesel after her nightmares and taught her to read using the first book Liesel stole, which she found at her brother's funeral and took it because it connected her to the last time she would see her brother or mother.  Hans was a kind man, was sympathetic to the plight of the Jewish people, and was not a member of the Nazi party.  One night a young Jewish boxer, Max, the son of the man who saved Hans' life in World War I, arrived on the Huberman's doorstep, and without question they took him in and sheltered him in their basement.  Max and Liesel became good friends, and Max wrote books for her.  One afternoon when the Jews were being marched down the street to their camp, Hans made an unfortunate decision to try to help one of the men who had collapsed.  Hans was beaten and condemned by the neighborhood, and they knew it would not be safe for Max anymore.  Max left to survive on his own, and it was during a similar march years later that Liesel found Max marching.  Liesel survived the war and so did Max, but she lost everyone else on Himmel Street when it was bombed by Allied forces in 1943.  The book thief and the word shaker happened to be in the basement reviewing her memoirs while everyone else was asleep, missing the sirens that were too late anyways.  Death describes the horrific scene and became a book thief himself, stealing Liesel's memoir from the rubble on Himmel Street.

Critical Analysis

One of the things that makes this novel unique is the circular style of narration that Zusak uses.  Death tells us the fate of the characters before telling their tales, yet it does not spoil the story for the reader.  For example, we know in advance that Rudy will die, but we don't find out about the bombing until the end.  We know early on that one or both of the Hubermans will be taken away, but we don't know why or who.  Reading this novel is almost like putting together a puzzle; you assemble the edges first and then fill in the middle rather than assembling every piece in order from left to right.  He employs a unique tactic of bold-print sections that contain truths from Death, our narrator, and usually these are facts that only he knows as an omniscient observer.

What stands out to me as the theme of this novel is that words have power.  The story that Max writes for Liesel, "The Word Shaker," tells of how Hitler convinced a country to exterminate the Jews by inundating his citizens with words, propaganda.  In his story, Max's tear becomes a seed which Liesel plants, and it grows to spread words of kindness, shading out the Hitler's trees that grow words of hatred and fear.  Words can truly make a difference and create change if enough people see them.  That is why Liesel wrote her story, and it truly had an impact, even on Death himself.

Awards & Review Excerpts

2014 Margaret A Edwards Award Winner

2007 Sydney Taylor book Awards Winner

2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor

 

Voice of Youth Advocates, 6/1/2006 by Amanda MacGregor

"Zusak brilliantly weaves together many strands of stories, creating a gripping and tragic narrative."

Publishers Weekly, 1/30/2006

"This hefty volume is an achievement-a challenging book in both length and subject, and best suited to sophisticated older readers. The narrator is Death himself, a companionable if sarcastic fellow, who travels the globe "handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity." Death keeps plenty busy during the course of this WWII tale, even though Zusak (I Am the Messenger) works in miniature, focusing on the lives of ordinary Germans in a small town outside Munich."

 

Connections

Readers might also enjoy The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable by John Boyne, about a friendship between a German boy and a Jewish boy in a concentration camp, ISBN 9780385751537 or Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, about a Danish family who helped hide Jews during Nazi occupied Denmark, ISBN 9780547577098.