The Book Thief

I'm always a little wary of Holocaust books. I've read Diary of Anne Frank, of course, and Number the Stars (by Lois Lowry), and The Devil's Arithmetic (Jane Yolen), and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne) and they were powerful and moving and I felt sick for three days afterward. They kind of killed my faith in humanity.

The Book Thief is different. To begin with, it is narrated by Death. This isn't the Grim Reaper, though, or some sort of ghoul. His job is to scoop up the dead souls and take them away, but sometimes, he can't help but notice the survivors. As he says, "I am haunted by humans."

He is particularly haunted by Liesel Meminger, a skinny nine-year-old German girl who comes to live on Hummel street with Hans and Rosa, her new foster parents. On the way to her new home, standing in the snow watching her brother being buried, Death watches Liesel as she steals for the first time: The Grave-Digger's Handbook.

Throughout The Book Thief, Death tells her story; but, as so often happens, her life is inextricably linked with the lives of others. The first person to be affected by the book thief is Hans Hubermann, her foster father. He is a soft-spoken accordionist with melting gray eyes, and as he teaches Liesel to read, he becomes the first person she is able to trust in her new home. His wife, Rosa, is a wardrobe-shaped woman with a hard hand and a filthy mouth, but in her own way she grows to love Liesel too. Hans and Rosa work together to shelter Max, a Jewish fistfighter whose family is taken away and who has nowhere else to run. Liesel grows closer to Max as the book progresses, but he can't stay hidden forever.

My favorite character, however, was undoubtedly Rudy, Liesel's best (and only) friend. The first time they meet, Rudy knows that he will always love Liesel; and Liesel makes up her mind that she will never let herself love him back. As the book goes on, their relationship progresses - they grow together from ragged, hungry 9-year-old soccer players to cynical, starving partners-in-crime.

Unlike most books, The Book Thief is not a straightforward story with cliffhangers and a climax. Rather, the narrator loops around himself, telling the reader early on who will die and who will live. Rather than eliminating the tension, however, this made it worse: I was constantly on the edge of my seat, nervously awaiting the tragedy I knew was coming. Despite this, however, The Book Thief wasn't all sad; Liesel is too strong of a character to constantly seem like a victim, and grim humor is sprinkled throughout the pages.

The Book Thief was heartbreaking but somehow hopeful. Even in the darkest of times, it seemed to say, you can still find beauty and goodness. In the first chapter, Death explains that he tries to always notice the colors, to find peace in them even when he is deep in the most gruesome situations. He'll never get a real vacation, he explains. Who could replace him? He's Death, after all. So he vacations in increments. In colors.

Zusak's style is unlike anything I've read before; each sentence reads like a poem, and the words stayed with me long after I finished reading. His two other books, I Am the Messenger and Underdogs, are similar in style but lack the grim power of The Book Thief, perhaps because they're set in modern time Australia rather than tumultuous Nazi Germany. They're still amazing books, though, and I'd definitely recommend checking them out.

Here's a great interview with Markus Zusak (and if you need incentive to watch it ... he has an amazing Australian accent).

~Maya