The Book Thief

Normally I try to write about the books I've read in the order that I finished them. Today I am going to break that rule. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak blew me away. I wrote this post as soon as I could because I want to share The Book Thief with all of you. This book begs to be shared.  I finished it approximately 10 minutes ago, and boy did I cry. There have only been a handful of books that have ever made me cry. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Watership Down by Richard Adams are a couple titles that come to mind. (And no, I didn't cry when Dumbledore died. Lets get real people, it was bound to happen). In fact, I'll admit to crying like a baby after finishing Of Mice and Men for school when I was a freshman in high school. To this very day I vividly remember trying to explain to my dad as to why I was crying so much over a book.  (Sorry Dad. Haha).

I digress. Back to The Book Thief. It begins with this statement by the narrator "Here is a small fact: You are going to die." If that doesn't draw you in, I don't know what will.

  The narrator of the story is Death, kind of like the grim reaper but not in the traditional sense. Death is more like an innocent witness to the sorrows of human kind, who must clean up the souls left behind. The story takes place in Nazi Germany during WWII, and death is very busy. Yet somehow, a young German girl named Liesel catches his attention and he finds himself returning to her life periodically to see how she is doing. In my opinion, Liesel and the people in her life represent the slew of emotions experienced by the world during a catastrophic event such as WWII. As you can imagine there is a profusion of sorrow, hatred, death and betrayal but glimpses of love, humor and compassion that shine through at the most unsuspected times. Don't get me wrong, this book does not sugar coat the horrors that millions of people experienced during WWII. Instead, it gives a human face to the lives lived and lost during this tumultuous time in our history. If you've read any of my other blog posts you know that I value realism in a book. And this book gives a huge dose of realism, which, as proven by my tears, can be overwhelmingly sad at times. It was such a beautiful and creatively written book that deserves to be read cover to cover. I was not expecting it to evoke the emotions in me that it did. But I am glad that it did, because a good book should do that.

I wont write anymore about this book, because I honestly don't think I could do it justice. I actually borrowed it from a fellow bibliophile friend and now I plan on buying a copy for my own collection.  Just promise me you will do yourself a favor and read it. And heed my advice: you'll want to have a box of tissues near by when you read it.