The Book Thief, post 1

For my winter break reading assignment, I have chosen to read two fantastic and incredibly depressing novels: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

            The cover of The Book Thief is a sepia image, displaying a long white finger about to push over a long line of dominos that trails into the background. The title of the book is written in stenciled capital letters, white ink on black background. The author’s name is written in the same font, smaller and in red – not so coincidentally, the colours of the Nazi flag.

            On the back cover is written an excerpt of dialogue between the main character, Liesel Meminger, and her best friend Rudy Steiner. They are talking about the sensation of stealing books, why it is so important, why they are stealing them “back”. From what, or whom, remains to be discovered throughout the entire story.

            The Book Thief is a chronicle set in World War II Germany, in a poor district of Munich. The story follows the life of a young girl, Liesel Meminger. When she is first introduced, she is nine years old. She, her mother and her brother are on the train to Munich where Liesel and her brother Werner are to be taken in by a foster family. We are first introduced at the point where her brother has died, presumably of pneumonia. She and her mother are briefly allowed to disembark in order to bury him. At his burial, Liesel finds a book in the snow – The Gravedigger’s Handbook. This is, as the narrator says, her first act of book thievery. With this book as her inspiration, and the help of her foster father Hans Hubberman, Liesel is taught how to read. 

            Thus, the central character’s drive is unleashed. Books (and especially the acquisition of) become the main focus of the story. Throughout the entire book, all the main events are interspersed with her acts of book thievery from Nazi book burnings, even the mayor’s library. She cannot simply buy the books, as the Hubbermans are not rich enough to afford many luxuries, books included.