Stealing Hearts

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

Knopf USA 2005

Genre: Historical Fiction

Awards and Recognition: 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor

Read it if: You are looking for a complex and moving historical novel

Best for: Older teens; some violence, mature themes

If you like it, try:

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusack

Lisa by Carol Matas

Rating: 5/5

The winter of 1939 changes everything for Liesel Meminger. Sent to live with a foster family after the death of her younger brother and the ruin of her mother, she arrives in the tiny German city of Molching with two possessions: a small suitcase and The Gravedigger's Handbook, stolen from her brother's graveside. A stranger to the community, grieving her brother and unable to read, the stolen book becomes the catalyst for Liesel's transformation into a book thief. With the help of her chain smoking, accordion playing foster father, Liesel learns to read. Her growing passion for words drives her to find books wherever she can, from Nazi book burnings to private homes.

Amongst the characters on Himmel street, from her gentle foster father and foul mouthed foster mother, to Rudy Stiener, the fast-talking, faster running boy next door, Liesel finds a home and gains a family. As the war wears on and comes closer to the world of Himmel street than she could ever imagine, Liesel learns about the real power words have to free and to enslave.

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is a powerful, unusual book. Written from the perpective of a German community in World War II, the novel forgoes the usual formula often inherit in WWII historical fiction. A surprising narrator, lyrical style and the most real characters I have read in a long time make this book gripping. Zusak tells a complex story, using thieving as a metaphor to explore life's paradox: what we take, be it books, or friendship or power, we can never really keep.

 Intelligent and difficult in many ways, this book will appeal to readers looking for a provocative, transformative read. The Book Thief won a Printz honor in 2007 and garnered much critical praise when it was released - all of it much deserved.