Grade: A+
Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction, WWII stories, and those who enjoy the beauty of words and books.
The Book Thief should include coupons for kleenex because hoo boy are you going to need them! I'm talking crying oceans of tears.
The Book Thief is a story about a foster child, Liesel, sent to live in a poor town near Munich after her parents were accused of being Communists. Liesel's foster family is a cast of characters to say the least. Her mother does the laundry for those who can afford it and swears like a trucker. Her father is a painter and accordion player with a heart of gold. Liesel meets a neighborhood boy named Rudy and together they navigate the crumbling town of Molching, stealing books and fruit. Along the way comes Max Vandenberg, a Jewish man in desperate need of help. Death is our narrator.
The prose of Markus Zusak is beautiful and just goes to show how you can craft short sentences into beauty. Considering how heavy the subject matter is in this book, Zusak turning it into beauty shows what a talented writer he is. The writing is so superb that you can close your eyes and imagine the streets of Molching, the Hubermann's house, the Mayor's library, etc. Bonus points for teaching me how to swear in German! The Book Thief has won quite a few awards, although I have to disagree with it being considered a YA novel. Had I read this in junior high or high school I doubt that I would have appreciated the prose.
If you can get through the book without crying buckets of tears, I'm not sure if we read the same book. This book is deeply affecting, will haunt you, and does take time to fully process, but it's so worth it. The Book Thief is one of those titles that I'm all evangelical about.
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