The Book Thief - Book Review

After hearing so many positive reviews about this book, I decided to form my own opinion and give this book a try. After reading this 550 pages long book borrowed from the library, I ended up buying one for myself because books like “The Book Thief” need to be treasured. I absolutely loved it.

The book is set in Germany in the years of 1939-1943. A 12 years old girl, Liesel who was orphaned in a way and was handed to her foster parents by her mother. Liesel never saw her father and her brother died on the way to her foster parents. She stole her first book randomly at her brother’s grave and the rest of them skillfully in the story, hence the title “The Book Thief”.

The best thing I liked about this book is that Death narrates the whole story to prove the point that humans are actually worth it. I have read a few books on Holocaust but what makes this book stand apart from the others is that it contains characters who represented the other side of Nazi Germany who were unwilling to fly the Nazi flag.

Markus Zusak’s writing felt like musical play throughout the book. This book represents the power of words and language and Markus has used them both effectively with wonderful sentences, great paragraphs, aptly titled short chapters and superb characters.

This book is definitely not the last one for me by Markus.