After seeing The Book Thief in the cinema and thoroughly enjoying it, I decided to read the book. It was the first time I had actively chosen not to read a book before seeing its big screen version, and whilst it made the film potentially more enjoyable, it didn't do the same for my experience of the book. Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy the book; it is fantastically written and by the end I was predictably crying my eyes out as my train pulled into Waterloo on a busy Friday afternoon. However, I found the book rather long and having just seen the film and therefore lacking the surprise element in terms of the plot, I was sad to find it didn't grip me quite as much as I had expected. There are numerous positive things about it though. The unique writing style is fascinating, with the narrative told very cleverly by Death himself, who is struggling with his own perception of humanity as he travels around the war-torn Earth collecting souls. His relative fondness and admiration for Liesel is inspiring, as is his sympathy for her as he takes all her loved ones from her one by one over the years. Liesel herself is a very likeable character, strong and determined. The relationship between Liesel and her best friend Rudy is wonderfully innocent, yet anything but innocent at the same time. They spend a lot of time together, always supporting each other in their actions and accompanying each other on walks or trips to steal apples from farms or books from the mayor's house. Yet embedded in their friendship is the war and the horrors around them; the Jews being marched through their town of Molching on the way to Dachau, the fact that both their fathers are taken away from them as a punishment for standing up to the Nazis, and the experience of finding a dying enemy pilot still in his crashed plane, giving him a soft toy to hold and staying with him until his last breath. They fight the indoctrination of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls, they refuse to hate the Jews and instead declare their hatred for the Führer. They are old before their time, yet also just children who argue and run and play football and help each other out when they need it. There is even an element of frustration as you realise that Rudy is not going to survive and yet Liesel consistently refuses to kiss him; despite the horrors occurring throughout the book the two children evoke a magical feeling of love and the desire to see them happy together in a peaceful world. The fact that this doesn’t come to pass is painful but adds to the validity of the story and the fact that “happily ever after” was a rare luxury in the era of the Third Reich.
I have read a lot of books about the war, but rarely one about the lives of ordinary Germans on the home front, scared of bombs and just trying to get enough food to survive. Liesel's adopted family, the Hubermanns, were so brave hiding a Jew in Germany, indeed in a town near Munich where the Nazi party was born. Despite the atrocities committed by many Germans, it is important not to view all the people as the enemy but to see that German families had to suffer too. In fact, nearly all the characters are killed when the town is bombed accidentally by the Allies. Liesel's struggle to come to terms with this, her devastation at the loss of her second family, is heartbreaking.
The book is superbly written and is, I believe, an important story. Tears, laughter, fear, admiration; Markus Zusak evokes it all. With the clever embedding of German words and breathtaking attention to detail, this book will transport you to the German town of Molching and take you on an emotional rollercoaster alongside a little girl who just wants a family of her own, to tell her best friend Rudy that she loves him, and to stop Hitler from persecuting her dear Jewish friend Max.
I have read a lot of books about the war, but rarely one about the lives of ordinary Germans on the home front, scared of bombs and just trying to get enough food to survive. Liesel's adopted family, the Hubermanns, were so brave hiding a Jew in Germany, indeed in a town near Munich where the Nazi party was born. Despite the atrocities committed by many Germans, it is important not to view all the people as the enemy but to see that German families had to suffer too. In fact, nearly all the characters are killed when the town is bombed accidentally by the Allies. Liesel's struggle to come to terms with this, her devastation at the loss of her second family, is heartbreaking.
The book is superbly written and is, I believe, an important story. Tears, laughter, fear, admiration; Markus Zusak evokes it all. With the clever embedding of German words and breathtaking attention to detail, this book will transport you to the German town of Molching and take you on an emotional rollercoaster alongside a little girl who just wants a family of her own, to tell her best friend Rudy that she loves him, and to stop Hitler from persecuting her dear Jewish friend Max.