Markus Zusak

The 10th-anniversary edition of the No. 1 international bestseller and modern classic beloved by millions of readers HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH The 10th-anniversary edition features pages of bonus content, including marked-up manuscript pages, original sketches, and pages from the author's writing notebook.

The Book Thief

Callas

I do not carry a sickle or scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold. And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.

It was a Monday, they walked on a tightrope to the sun.

'As many mistakes as you want,' he told her.

'When death captures me,' the boy vowed, 'he will feel my fist on his face.'

Jess (the og)

No-one would bomb a place named after heaven, would they?

He was twenty-four. When he won a round of cards, he gloated - he would hold the thin cylinders of tobacco to his nose and breathe them in. 'The smell of victory,' he would say. Oh, and one more thing.

Maia 

yasmini

Alice Perelta

No one wanted to bomb Himmel Street. No one would bomb a place named after heaven, would they?

For some reason, dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. Perhaps it's so they can die being right.

the one person who was supposed not to survive did. He was destined to live. I'm happy he did. (max)

blue

Finally, in October 1945, a man with swampy eyes, feathers of hair, and a clean-shaven face walked into the shop. He approached the counter. “Is there someone here by the name of Liesel Meminger?” “Yes, she’s in the back,” said Alex. He was hopeful, but he wanted to be sure. “May I ask who is calling on her?” Liesel came out. They hugged and cried and fell to the floor.

feeling choked up because of the 'and the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever'

In her final visions, she saw her three children, her grandchildren, her husband, and the long list of lives that merged with hers. Among them, lit like lanterns, were Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her brother, and the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever.

this made me tear up...i thought knowing rudy will die from a few chapters ago and anticipating his death would make it easier but seeing how he dies from a raid and how death experiences the event...my heart breaks for him. Sadly, my heart breaks even more knowing people in my country experience(d) this. My heart hurts because as much as i'd like to play the victim, i was privileged to hear the bombs but never be at the end of their wrath. I hear the tales and they could've been mine but ultimately they're not. What's a tale to me is the reality for someone else, what distinguished me from them was being born in the city of the dictator. War is so unfair.

At the Steiners’, I ran my fingers through Barbara’s lovely combed hair, I took the serious look from Kurt’s serious sleeping face, and one by one, I kissed the smaller ones good night. Then Rudy. Oh, crucified Christ, Rudy . . . He lay in bed with one of his sisters. She must have kicked him or muscled her way into the majority of the bed space because he was on the very edge with his arm around her. The boy slept. His candlelit hair ignited the bed, and I picked both him and Bettina up with their souls still in the blanket. If nothing else, they died fast and they were warm. The boy from the plane, I thought. The one with the teddy bear. Where was Rudy’s comfort? Where was someone to alleviate this robbery of his life? Who was there to soothe him as life’s rug was snatched from under his sleeping feet? No one. There was only me. And I’m not too great at that sort of comforting thing, especially when my hands are cold and the bed is warm. I carried him softly through the broken street, with one salty eye and a heavy, deathly heart. With him, I tried a little harder. I watched the contents of his soul for a moment and saw a black-painted boy calling the name Jesse Owens as he ran through an imaginary tape. I saw him hip-deep in some icy water, chasing a book, and I saw a boy lying in bed, imagining how a kiss would taste from his glorious next-door neighbor. He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.

you know it's a well-written book when you can /feel/ the nostalgia

The light was still orange, but it was not as lustrous as earlier. Her hands felt their final grip of the wooden window frame, and there was the last rush of a plunging stomach, and the pang of pain in her feet when she landed.

At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? It’s likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didn’t matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty for it, waiting. Years ago, when they’d raced on a muddy field, Rudy was a hastily assembled set of bones, with a jagged, rocky smile. In the trees this afternoon, he was a giver of bread and teddy bears. He was a triple Hitler Youth athletics champion. He was her best friend. And he was a month from his death. “Of course I told him about you,” Liesel said. She was saying goodbye and she didn’t even know it.

"people and jews" the distinguishing here :(

People and Jews and clouds all stopped. They watched.

this part made me emotional (the whole book has this effect, but for some reason, i had the urge to highlight this part specifically)

They pedaled ahead of the parade, toward Dachau, and stopped at an empty piece of road. Rudy passed Liesel the bag. “Take a handful.” 

“I’m not sure this is a good idea.” He slapped some bread onto her palm. “Your papa did.” How could she argue? It was worth a whipping. 

“If we’re fast, we won’t get caught.” He started distributing the bread. “So move it, Saumensch.” 

Liesel couldn’t help herself. There was the trace of a grin on her face as she and Rudy Steiner, her best friend, handed out the pieces of bread on the road. When they were finished, they took their bikes and hid among the Christmas trees. The road was cold and straight. It wasn’t long till the soldiers came with the Jews. In the tree shadows, Liesel watched the boy. How things had changed, from fruit stealer to bread giver. His blond hair, although darkening, was like a candle. She heard his stomach growl—and he was giving people bread.

The first soldier did not see the bread—he was not hungry—but the first Jew saw it.

Christine

You might well ask just what the hell he was thinking. The answer is, probably nothing at all. He'd probably say that he was exercising his God-given right to stupidity.

In all honesty (and I know I’m complaining excessively now), I was still getting over Stalin, in Russia. The so-called second revolution—the murder of his own people.

On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy was robbery-so much life, so much to live for-yet somehow, I'm certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. He'd have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his decimated body. He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty bomb-hit lips.

Gabi🌸🌷

Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.

Jazz

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”

elizabeth

I read this back in eighth grade when we were able to write a book report about any book we wanted. I loved it then. And I loved it now, with twice the life experience under my belt. 

As an adult this time, I caught more. I could put two and two together to better understand characters’ motivations that I think flew over my head at 14. I remembered this book as being overwhelmingly about Leisel, but on this read, the stories of the adults around her seemed just as alive and prescient. Their experiences were nuanced and confronted me with the question of how I choose to rebel against and disrupt oppression and violence. 

But I think even at 14, I understood the important stuff, the top tier of themes in the book: words are important, books are powerful, and life is not black and white (maybe more importantly, neither is death). 

It’s touching, illuminating, dark, and beautiful.

Monicap

I need to have words with the person who told me to read this.
One of my real-life friends, who I am now calling the Recent Destroyer of My Happiness.

She made me read this! Introduced me to my true love knwoing full well he would die a short 512 pages later!

I'm gonna go cry some more and possibly come back with a real review later.

Paula Plaza Ponte 

There's something about the way Zusak used metaphors to develop character, setting, plot and theme.

When I realized that death is the narrator of the story , I knew this book would break me into pieces. And yes, this book shattered me in every possible way, yet somehow, I found myself deeply enamored with it. I have a bittersweet  love-hate relationship with this story, and that's what makes it so compelling to me. 

While this may be historical fiction, it's widely understood that Liesel's story is not just her story, but rather representative of the countless individuals who endured the hardships of wartime.  It took me around a month to finish the book as I slowly devoured each word like a form of meditation. 

The narrative style, the little stories woven throughout, the remarkable quotes—everything about the book captivated me from beginning to end. And I have no words to express how much I am affected and haunted by The Book Thief. 

Senali Senanayake 

When I realized that death is the narrator of the story , I knew this book would break me into pieces. And yes, this book shattered me in every possible way, yet somehow, I found myself deeply enamored with it. I have a bittersweet  love-hate relationship with this story, and that's what makes it so compelling to me. 

While this may be historical fiction, it's widely understood that Liesel's story is not just her story, but rather representative of the countless individuals who endured the hardships of wartime.  It took me around a month to finish the book as I slowly devoured each word like a form of meditation. 

The narrative style, the little stories woven throughout, the remarkable quotes—everything about the book captivated me from beginning to end. And I have no words to express how much I am affected and haunted by The Book Thief. 

Fu a nove anni che Liesel iniziò la sua brillante carriera di ladra. Certo, aveva fame e rubava mele, ma quello a cui teneva veramente erano i libri, e più che rubarli li salvava. Il primo fu quello caduto nella neve accanto alla tomba dove era stato appena seppellito il suo fratellino. Stavano andando a Molching, vicino a Monaco, dove li aspettavano i loro genitori adottivi. Il secondo, invece, lo sottrasse al fuoco di uno dei tanti roghi accesi dai nazisti. A loro piaceva bruciare tutto: case, negozi, sinagoghe, persone... Piano piano, con il tempo ne raccolse una quindicina, e quando affidò la propria storia alla carta si domandò quando esattamente la parola scritta avesse incominciato a significare non solamente qualcosa, ma tutto. Accadde forse quando vide per la prima volta la libreria della moglie del sindaco, un'intera stanza ricolma di volumi? Quando arrivò nella sua via Max Vandenburg, ex pugile ma ancora lottatore, portandosi dietro il "Mein Kampf" e infinite sofferenze? Quando iniziò a leggere per gli altri nei rifugi antiaerei? Quando s'infilò in una colonna di ebrei in marcia verso Dachau? Ma forse queste erano domande oziose, e ciò che realmente importava era la catena di pagine che univa tante persone etichettate come ebree, sovversive o ariane, e invece erano solo poveri esseri legati da spettri, silenzi e segreti.

La bambina che salvava i libri

Paolo Genta

Questo libro mi รจ piaciuto, ben scritto, una storia interessante, narrata da un punto di vista... particolare. 

Secondo me poteva essere molto piรน corto, ma la lunghezza passa in secondo piano leggendo la fine del libro, che รจ un vero pugno nello stomaco che mi ha fatto lacrimare gli occhi e che mi ha fatto dire.. peccato sia finito!

Rohit Khanduri

warning 🚨

1 out of 5 stars

The Book Thief is a novel by Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The story is narrated by Death and follows the life of a young girl named Liesel Meminger. The book is known for its unique narrative style and has won several awards.

Throughout the book, Liesel is shown stealing books, hence the title. She learns to read with the help of her foster father, Hans Hubermann, and starts stealing books from book burnings and the mayor's wife's library. The books she reads inspire her and provide her with a means of escape from the harsh reality of her life in Nazi Germany.

Another important theme in the book is the power of words. Liesel's love for books and reading leads her to write her own story, which she leaves behind for others to read. The book also highlights the power of words in propaganda and how they can be used to manipulate and control people.

The Book Thief also explores the lives of ordinary Germans during the war. It shows the struggles and hardships they faced, as well as the fear and paranoia that permeated everyday life. The book also portrays the role of the Hitler Youth and how they were indoctrinated with propaganda and hatred from a young age.

I recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and I have to say that it was one of the most boring books I have ever read. I found myself constantly fighting the urge to stop reading it, but I persevered with the hope that it would get better. Unfortunately, it never did.

The main issue I had with this book was the writing style. It was so poor that it made me wonder how it even got published in the first place. The sentences were overly long and convoluted, making it difficult to follow the plot. The dialogue was stilted and unrealistic, and the characters were one-dimensional and lacked depth.

What's even more surprising is that The Book Thief has won several awards for its unique narrative style. I find this hard to believe, as the writing is so bad that it's hard to fathom how it won anything at all. It's almost as if the judges were more impressed with the concept of the book rather than the actual execution of it.

Apart from the poor writing style, the plot itself was uneventful and uninspiring. The story follows a young girl named Liesel who steals books during Nazi Germany and learns to read. The idea of a book about a young girl who loves books and reading was intriguing to me, but the execution fell flat. The story lacked any real emotional depth, and the characters were forgettable.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. If you're looking for a good read, The Book Thief is not it. It's a shame because the concept had potential, but the execution was lacklustre. Save yourself the time and find something else to read.

Luke Harkness

Wonderful.

This is such an incredible book to read. Not only does it give you an interesting understanding of what it was like for the younger generation of Germans and Jews in Germany during the 1930s and 40s but it does so in such a beautiful, engaging and witty way.

Sarah Sammis

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a book I've been told by numerous people that would profoundly affect me. I would love it and it would make me cry. Neither happened but I can see why it has had that effect on so many.

Liesel is being sent to a foster family as things are hotting up in Germany. Her mother can no longer care for her and her brother. The book opens with the brother dying on the train.

Her brother's death is the first of many in the The Book Thief. It's a book set in Germany during WWII. Death is to expected. He's also the narrator of the book.

Now here's the problem. Although Death describes himself as the reflection you see in the mirror, I couldn't help but think of a very different Death. ONE THAT TALKS IN ALL CAPS and rides a horse named Binky.

Maybe that's where the problem started. Zusak's Death is as sentimental and burned out by his job as Pratchett's Death sometimes is. This Death also tends to tell his tale in short, pity bursts, each new one starting with a short list of fun facts. This starting and stopping interrupted the flow of the story so that I was only able to read the book in chunks of maybe 10 pages at a time.

That snip by snip reading worked for the first 300 pages but I grew tired of it. As Germany gets into the war and everyone is in danger including Liesel and her foster family, Death's approach to telling things wore thin on my patience. I really wanted him to shut up and let the story unfold. But he never does.

DON'T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK'S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF. This 10th-anniversary edition of the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller features pages of bonus content, including marked-up manuscript pages, original sketches, and pages from the author's writing notebook. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. "The kind of book that can be life-changing." --The New York Times "Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank." --USA Today

** spoiler alert **
           I am literally so devastated right now by the entire bombing. Rudy was such an amazing character .-.

romi

The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. “The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times “Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today DON’T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK’S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF.

Never have I cried, laughed, and cheered so loud, while reading a book. My heart dropped every time the grim reaper (though he claimed not to be 

 grim reaper humans made him out to be, I’m still going to call him that nevertheless) foreshadowed the future. I read with dread, awaiting the worst to unfold. Liesel—a young girl, so full of life; with so much love developed for the people around her, growing up absorbing them and had cherished a Jew as if he were her own family, all despite being German. This contradiction overwhelmed me with emotions. On numerous of occasions, I found myself brimming with tears. I can’t get over the mixed-feelings. What I know is that the overwhelming emotions I’m feeling now will turn into a beautiful longing for the book after some time.

P.S. I picked up some German along the way. Some of them being 

🏹

Never have I cried, laughed, and cheered so loud, while reading a book. My heart dropped every time the grim reaper (though he claimed not to be the grim reaper humans made him out to be, I’m still going to call him that nevertheless) foreshadowed the future. I read with dread, awaiting the worst to unfold. Liesel—a young girl, so full of life; with so much love developed for the people around her, growing up absorbing them and had cherished a Jew as if he were her own family, all despite being German. This contradiction overwhelmed me with emotions. On numerous of occasions, I found myself brimming with tears. I can’t get over the mixed-feelings. What I know is that the overwhelming emotions I’m feeling now will turn into a beautiful longing for the book after some time.

P.S. I picked up some German along the way. Some of them being Saumensch, Saukerl, and Arschloch. I find the irony hilarious.

Danielle Annika

I don't usually write reviews, but I'm doing so for future purposes. So I ended up DNFing this book, not because it was bad but because it wasn't a book for me. I was excited to read this cause pretty much everyone I know who's read this praises the book. Although I didn't end up finish it, I read the ending and I ended up liking with how it ended. Which is why I'll get back to this book probably when I feel more committed. Anywayyy, the reason I couldn't finish this book was that because one, it was too long and two, there were parts that were boring and felt unnecessary. I don't want to elaborate further because I have read reviews on here that are far superior to mine.

Wow. What an incredible book. Not many books can make me cry, but I just bawled like a baby. Such a beautiful, tragic story. 

Jillian Roberts

Date read:  January 10-January 13, 2019 

 Actual Rating: 5.00 STARS 

This is such a poignant masterpiece; tragically yet beautifully written to look us in the eyes while crushing us at the same time. I cried bucketful of tears and I am not even embarrassed to admit it. Reading this book through the eyes of death? The most unique yet beautiful writing I've encountered. I just love this book so much with all my heart.I don't even have the most fitted and most appropriate word to describe how wonderful this book without giving it less justice than it deserved. One thing is for sure, this is really a work that can change one's life. 

Now, I am more inclined on reading more historical fictions in the future. I'll make sure of that.

PS: I'll probably have to watch the movie adaptation right after this review.

chloe rae

wow.
How many book reviews have I written this year that started with one word? A few, definitely, but I have to do it yet again because this book wowed me.
I've had this book on my TBR pile for years and I'm so ridiculously glad I finally read it. I feel like it was another of those cosmic moments where I read it at the exact moment I needed to.
Markus Zusak kind of took my breath away. Not only was I completely destroyed at the end and literally SOBBING, but I was also hugging the book to me like it's precious, because it is. Liesel's journey is so poignant and strong and important and her voice just captured me. I've seen the movie so I knew exactly how it ended but reading the book was like watching it all through a different lens. (Also, I must point out how stellar the book characters were cast in the movie because they matched PERFECTLY.) I'm just in awe. What a wonderful, heartbreaking story about the importance of words and how life-changing they can be. I see why everyone raves about this book and will CONTINUE to do so. It deserves all the love and tears I can give to it.

Chaitanya Baranwal

"I love this place and I hate it, because it is full of words."

This book is about bittersweet love, about friendship. This book is about loss and suffering. It is about a little German girl and a fist fighting Jew. But more than anything, this book is about words. 

The Book Thief is a fictional memoir of sorts, about the experiences of Liesel Meminger at her foster home. It talks about her journeys with her friend Rudy Steiner, her foster parents the Hubermanns , a Jew named Max Vandenburg, and her life at Himmel Street in general. The first thing that strikes my mind is how the book is imbued with a child-like innocence, which makes the story as impactful as any masterful writing. Fragments of touching events are coupled with intervals of painful and frightening incidents. One theme the book permeates with, even in the chapter titles, is the importance of books. It shapes Liesel, and in the end, it saves her. What's interesting is that there isn't any mind-blowing plot in the novel. It talks about regular life of German families during the second World War, which in itself becomes an interesting enough read to move forward.

Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, this book succeeds in something I initially thought was very difficult: depicting Nazi Germany as a place brimming with humanity.

Deepika Ramesh

I am drowning in my own tears. <3 Some book, this is.

Francesca Starecheski

Three times read and never insufficiently dolorous. Evermore love for this book each time I hold it and breeze my face with its pages. This book is tear stains, this book is truth, this book is Death's pretty song.

HERE IS A SMALL FACT:
YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with her foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

SOME MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH.

It's a small story, about:
a girl
an accordionist
some fanatical Germans
a Jewish fist fighter
and quite a lot of thievery.

ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW:
DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES.

couldn't even annotate. i was just crying and reading and crying and reading.

Robi Carballo

Actual rating: 4.5/5⭐

𝐶𝑎𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠? 𝑂𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙, 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘? - The Book Thief

I have been entirely monogamous with The Book Thief because I can't put it down. This is the first historical fiction book that I finished. It's a big step from YA fantasy reading, to be honest, I have no idea how I worked through that leap but I'm happy I did. ❤

✔ Foster family love
My favorite trope (newfound family). It doesn't work for everyone and I'm happy it worked out with Liesel.

✔ Childhood friendship
It is so good to reminisce and relate yourself to this. We all have been here. Childhood friends hold a special place in our hearts. We grew apart and change lives but the sweet, fun, warm memories will always be remembered, and when we did we couldn't help but smile.

✔ Overcoming struggles
This is set during the Nazi period in Germany (pre, during, and post-World War II). We have learned the history and have an idea of what was life back then. 

✔ Compassion
Imagine you're a German during the Nazi period and you know a Jew. Would you help? Well, guess what Meminger Family did.

✔ Father-Daughter relationship
I have a very soft spot for this kind of relationship, plus the fact that they are not biologically related. I love Liesel and Papa's relationship.

✔ Gradual, realistic
Even though the story is not fast-paced, I didn't regret the time and effort I put into this. This is such great work.

✖/✔ Spoilers from the narrator. Although it's a great help for my anxiety that I was able to handle what has happened (almost, I still cried 😅).

It's a great book! Not until part 4 when I figured out who the narrator was and from then everything made sense, everything fell in its places.

Kritika Narula

I have just finished reading it. Heart-break is obvious. 
Detailed review comes in later, but I have to say this- it is hard to come by such a great story.

deva

“He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist’s suit collection.” …😭😭😭😭 i love it when books ruin me

Syahla Aurel

I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right. 

You know it’s a very good book when you don’t want it to end 😭

The Book Thief

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