My Review of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Finished on: 8th August 2013
Rating: 4 stars
Book Challenge Number: 48
Sorry for my absence from this blog, I’ve been reading some academic texts for the second year of my degree which have taken up quite a bit of my time. Decided not to review them as they’re difficult to review without lots of understandable historiographical terms, which I have been trying to avoid writing down for as long as possible.
The Book Thief is an interesting novel which is narrated by ‘Death’, which is an odd concept to get your head around. The setting is WW2 era Germany, where ‘undesirables’ are being rounded up and murdered in concentration camps and bombs are falling left, right and centre. Living in a small German town is Liesel, a girl living with elderly foster parents after her brother dies and her parents worry for her future because of their Communist sympathies making them a Nazi target. When her brother dies, this is the first time Death notices Liesel, and this is where the story begins.
The story continues through the war, with Liesel making friends, hiding in air raid shelters during bombings, assisting her foster mother, learning to read whilst stealing books and food as life becomes tougher in Germany. As the story continues, Death talks about the general climate of the time and how busy he is as he takes people, some of those lives revolving around and close to Liesel.
I really liked this book and didn’t find it took me ages to adjust to the odd concept of Death narrating. This book is well-written and quite easy to get into which is always a bonus for me as I don’t like reading to feel like a chore. I highly recommend it’s book for bringing a new dimension to the usual World War 2 story.
Solitude, Reading and Tea 