The Book Thief

Summary

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one of my favorite books of all time. It is a story, written from the perspective of death, who is narrating the events of the life of a little girl Liesel. Liesel grows up in the middle of Nazi Germany with a new family, after she gets separated away from her mother. The story is heartwrenchingly sad and beautifully written. The characters feel real and alive, and I cried when I read this book multiple times.

In the Book Thief the family that Liesel grows up in is very disciplinarian, trying to get by in the harsh reality of the war torn Germany, but also trying to be good to her in their own, sometimes twisted ways. Liesel learns how to read from Herr stepfather and steals books whenever she has the opportunity. Because she loves reading so much, and books fascinate her and give her a way into another reality. They have a mystical quality to them, and seem sometimes more real than the terrible life they are living in those times. She makes good friends with one of the neighbouring kids, Rudy Steiner, who falls in love with her at some point.

Living through her successes of understanding letters and words, and learning of her friendships and her life, all from the perspective of death following her closely, because he has missed her once already, is bone-chilling but hauntingly beautiful.

At some point the family takes in a Jew in their home, sheltering them from Nazi Germany and the two become friends. In the end they are more like siblings but having Max at home becomes too dangerous eventually and Max has to flee and go out into the world on his own. This moment still breaks my heart.

The situations of daily life in Nazi Germany become more intense, the pogroms start, book burnings happen, and Liesel is confronted with all of it and doesn't want to play a part in any of it.

She sees the ugly, sad, bloodly reality of war as it seeps through the pages and deaths descriptions of the millions of boys killing one another in bloodshed stick with me to this day. The book is dark, and sometimes too good at capturing the atmosphere of war. It is too human, too real at showing the suffering of the people, but also how they endure and how twisted and wrong some of them become... how they lose their ways, their souls, how they break. Some parts of it remind me of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and Schindler's List. Somehow work like this, makes me think differently, it makes me put into context how good life is nowadays and how bad things can become. It makes me aware of the dangers of politics and power struggles and wary for the future, sometimes afraid that things like this could always happen again and that it is of utmost importance not to let them happen, ever again.