"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak *****

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is a special book with a truly unexpected focus. The format is exceptionally startling as the fundamental narrator is “Death”. In addition to the descriptions of the story line “Death” intermittently inserts its own comments, observations, and reflections. As “death” is infinite, the use of it as the story teller allows the author to occasionally use the technique of “foretelling” and this becomes a magnet for the reader to keep on reading.

The plot revolves around a young girl, Lisa Meminger, who is placed with a foster family at age 9 although the reason for this placement is never made clear. She travels to Molching, Germany with her mother and her brother dies during the trip. At the burial service Lisa accidently discovers a book, The Grave Diggers Handbook that has been lost by one of the burial staff. Instead of returning it she keeps it even though she can’t read; and thus begins the tale of the “book thief”.

The story begins in pre-WWII and continues into the 1940’s. In the years of growing up Lisa’s life is influenced greatly by foster mother whose vocabulary is filled with profanity and insults, but below the surface is deeply caring woman. Her foster father teaches her to read, shelters her, cares for her deeply and plays the accordion in a mediocre manner. Her best childhood friend is Rudy who picks on her, fights for her, entertains her, and loves her but never gets to kiss her. The family shelters a Jewish refuge that puts their safety into severe danger, and Lisa becomes very attached to the man and his safety. She continues to steal books during her early adolescents and many of them from the mayor’s idiosyncratic wife’s extensive library who ultimately facilitates Lisa’s thefts of her books.

Another of the books unique features is it gives some possible revelations about what life in this gruesome period of history must have been like for the German people who did not support the Nazi regime.

Zusak is an Australian writer with an admirable quality of writing secure dialogue with poetic and novel imagery which rivets the reader’s attention.