Review of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

I bought this after reading some of the reviews and since the good people at Amazon were offering at a bargain price I had to have it.

The story is a bit strange in that it is narrated by Death or the Grim Reaper. Some of his interjections and asides are quite amusing and informative once you get used to them. They were a bit annoying at first though.

The tale related is about a ten year old girl called Liesel Meminger. At the start she is on her way with her mother and brother to Munich. Now its never clear why but the children are to be fostered by Hans and Rosa Huberman in Molching on the outskirts of Muncih.

On the trip there, Liesel’s brother dies and is buried in a village near the railway line. This is the first time the death encounters Liesel and is also the first time that she steals a book. By the graveside she picks up the Grave Digger’s Handbook which has been dropped by an apprentice grave digger.

Eventually, Liesel gets to Molching and is left with the Hubermans. Rosa, her foster mother is a foul-mouthed washerwoman who’s heart is in the right place and Hans is an unemployed painter who plays accordion in the local bars. It is he who helps teach Liesel read properly and instil in her a love of books.

From this point we read about Liesel’s love of reading and books and her life growing up in the town of Molching through the start of the war.

Part of the way in Max Vandenberg, a Jew from Stuttgart turns up and is taken in secretively by the Hubermans. The connection is with an old buddy who was a buddy of Hans in the trenches in WWI. The Huberman’s risk everything to hide Max. In turn, he entertains and educates Liesel.

Unfortunately, Max has to run away when Hans gets involved in a scuffled with soldiers during a routine march of Jewish prisoners on their way to Dachau. His safety is compromised by this action.

Some people have said this book is about the holocaust. I think it is more about a young girl’s experience of the war and the people around her. It is also about her love of books and what relief they bring to her life to ease the burdens of the war. The holocaust does affect her in the form of Max and his escape from the Nazis and also the marches of the Jews through Molching. But in my opinion the book is only partly about this.

It took me a while to get into it but at the end I really enjoyed the Book Thief and although I didn’t cry at the end, it was certainly very sad. Having said that there was still room for a smile.