Book Review: The Book Thief

I've just read Markus Zusak's, 'The Book Thief', which was actually published back in 2008, but a film has been made (released January 2014 in the UK I believe) and the book has had a bit of  resurgence.

HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE

1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH

It's a small story, about:

a girl

an accordionist

some fanatical Germans

a Jewish fist fighter

and quite a lot of thievery.

ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW - DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES

Interested?  I have to say my curiosity was immediately sparked by reading the above blurb on the back of the book.  As it says, it centres around the world of a poor young girl, and the characters that come and go in her life as war breaks out.  The story is set on the periphery of the wider story of WWII, so that the characters are affected, irreparably, by the war, but it's not really a book about the war itself.  The central story is really about coming of age, of friendships and about books.  I don't really want to say too much about the plot, because it unfolds beautifully and if you're going to read it then I don't want any surprises spoilt.  It starts off as a gradual slide from 'normality' into a charged atmosphere of facism taking over every aspect of daily lives, and very much captures just how terrifying it must have been for 'ordinary' people.

I found this a very easy book to get into (it's actually for young adults), and the narration by Death is very novel, adding the odd bit of humour and at all times maintaining a unique perspective.  The book is smattered with intriguing subheadings (e.g. 'What to do with a Jewish corpse'), and every so often Death helps us readers out with notes about vocabulary or gives us some interesting trivia.  There are also a few sections of sketches - I found some of these difficult to get into, some are a bit abstract, but I can appreciate why they were used.

It was good to read something that focuses on the impact the war had on the lives of ordinary, poor people in Germany.  I found myself really rooting for the characters, caring about what happened to them.  Sometimes with British literature set at this time there is a lot of distance and a somewhat anti-German sentiment, whereas this book makes it clear that the true evil was Nazism, and that all sides paid a terrible human cost.

There have been some great female lead characters in young adult fiction in recent years (The Hunger Games, The Northern Lights trilogy etc.).  Can we have more great female leads in adult fiction please?

Overall, a heartrending, literary story that I became completely absorbed in.  Highly satisfying, memorable and emotive.  I'd recommend it, but maybe it's a bit too dark a topic for Christmas time.

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