The Book Thief
Markus Zusak (2005)
“Death narrates the life of a girl who steals books in Nazi Germany — and discovers that stories are the only thing stronger than destruction.”
At a Glance
Liesel Meminger is nine years old when she arrives on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, in 1939, placed with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. On the way, her brother dies and she steals her first book. Liesel learns to read with Hans's help, befriends Rudy Steiner, and begins stealing more books as World War II closes around her. When the Hubermanns hide Max Vandenburg, a Jewish man, in their basement, Liesel's understanding of words — their power to save and destroy — deepens. The novel is narrated by Death, who collects souls on the side and is haunted, as he tells us at the outset, by humans.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Published in Australia in 2005 to modest attention, then became a global phenomenon after U.S. publication in 2006 — spending more than 230 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Unusual for a book marketed to young adults, it was widely read by adults and became a standard text in both middle school and AP English curricula simultaneously. The 2013 film adaptation starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson brought the story to a still wider audience. The novel's unusual narrative conceit — Death as narrator — has been credited with expanding what young adult literature can formally attempt.
Diction Profile
Variable — Death's narration alternates between formal-literary and conversational-blunt; dialogue is naturalistic; the interspersed definition boxes use mock-encyclopedic register
High, but differently deployed than Fitzgerald or Woolf