This brief review has been transferred from The Sunlit Desk.
Narrated by Death itself during war-time Germany, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, tells a story of Liesel Meminger, a German girl with a penchant for books. Liesel steals books to feed her fascination, but it is her relationship with a Jewish man, Vandenburg, whom her foster parents give refuge to, that really makes this story for me. Hiding in the basement Vandeburg teaches Liesel to read and write so she can understand the books she’s stolen (her first acquisition is The Gravediggers Handbook). For her birthday he writes her a story and illustrates it with crude drawings. He calls his book The Standover Man, which is short and simplistic but beautifully done. The Book Thief is an incredibly well crafted book told during a time when men were destroyed as easily as the books they wrote. It is intense but very rewarding reading. I read it like it was the most important thing I’d ever do. Highly recommended reading.
