The Book Thief (Novel)

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The reason I picked up this book to read is because I recorded the movie on TV. I prefer reading the book first and then watching the film.

The Book Thief, published in 2005, is authored by Markus Zusak and was also adapted into a film in 2013. (I shall post a review of the film soon).   

  

The book is centred on the life of a young German girl, Liesel Meminger in war torn Germany during the time of the Second World War. The year is 1939 and Liesel steals her first book at the cemetery where her brother has just been buried. Unable to look after her daughter, Liesel’s mother gives her away to foster care where she is taken care of by Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Fraught with nightmares and fearful of the sharp tongued and tactless Rosa, Liesel’s initial inhibitions thaw as Hans takes her under his wing and teaches her to read. Liesel also befriends a neighbour boy, Rudy Steiner and together they have a series of adventures, mostly involving thieving that almost always end with Rudy trying to get a kiss from Liesel.

Times are tough, Germany has invaded Poland and war is looming ahead. Jewish people are being marked, their books and paraphernalia burnt. Life on Himmel Street is not smooth with unexpected air raids and the Hubermanns are managing to scrape through until one day, when Hans is made to keep a promise made in the past. The Hubermanns now have Max Vandenburg, a Jewish person, hidden in their basement.

Max and Liesel become close friends, their bond is forged by their dependence and protection offered to them by the Hubermanns. Knowing her love for books, Max writes illustrated books for her. (The stories along with the illustrations are seen in this book.)

Two random incidents by the members of the Hubermann and the Steiner family, one of kindness towards a stranger and the other of familial love upsets the lives of these families. Through all this, Liesel has her stolen books and her precious words that give her and others around her much comfort.

The story is narrated by Death himself.  

In the words of Death, “It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors- an expert at being left behind. It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: A girl, Some words, An Accordionist, Some fanatical Germans, A Jewish fist fighter And quite a lot of thievery”.

I’d at times forget that the story is being narrated by Death until I was rudely jolted to that fact by descriptions of the narrator having had to carry a soul away from the limp body.

The story is tragic. It ought to be. It involves a war, a girl who has suffered loss at a young age, Germans harbouring a Jewish person, frequent mention of Hitler and the atrocities committed by him. But don’t let that perturb you. Death is a very fascinating storyteller. He’ll make you want to pick that book back up again.

His style of narration is perspicuous. He creates vivid images in your mind through his descriptions. “The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.”

Death also likes to play around with words which makes the book an interesting read, the kind that brings a half smile on your lips. “A translation, Himmel=Heaven. Whoever named Himmel Street certainly had a healthy sense of irony. Not that it was a living hell. It wasn’t. But it sure as hell wasn’t heaven, either.”

Death takes pleasure in passing caustic remarks and subtly belittling Hitler and his followers. “Mr.Steiner placed his hand on Rudy’s head and explained, “I know, son – but you’ve got beautiful blond hair and big, safe blue eyes. You should be happy with that.” “You see, people may tell you that Nazi Germany was built on anti-Semitism, a somewhat overzealous leader, and a nation of hate-fed bigots, but it would all have come to nothing had the Germans not loved one particular activity: To burn”

He has a droll sense of humour. “It kills me sometimes, how people die”. “It’s probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitler’s reign, no person was able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me”.

He teases you by revealing the death of a character at the beginning of the chapter and also tells you how the character does not die.

This story covers the life of people on the other side, the presumed privileged faction in Germany. But while Jewish people were being sent off to concentration camps, the Germans fared no better. Unlike Hitler, war does not discriminate. But as Death says “The Germans in basements were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower”.

If you like the war genre, you must read this book.

At the end of the book, my thoughts went to another little girl, a Jewish girl, who, hidden in a room behind a bookcase, was penning down her thoughts into her Diary at around the same time as Liesel.