The Book Thief

When the movie adaption of The Book Thief came out in late 2013 (April of 2014 in Finland) I heard about this book for the first time and developed an interest for it. I didn’t go see the movie as I thought I’d rather read the novel first, but as a huge procrastinator I am, it took me about a year to finally grab the book and start reading. Even though this time it took me longer to read a book than usual, I’m really glad I finished it.

The Book Thief is a 2005 novel written by Australian author Markus Zusak and it tells the story of young German girl named Liesel Meminger, who during the Second World War discovers the world of literature and reading. It is her passion for books during the time when everything is scarce that drives her into stealing.

One of the most interesting facts about the novel is that the narrator is not Liesel but the embodiment of death. This is fascinating because Death is both an omniscient and first-person narrator; he is a character in the story, but being an almost god-like being he knows what other people think – even though he at times claims not to understand humans.

The writing style is really unique and it took a while for it to get to me, but in the end I grew to like it. Especially in the beginning the extra spacing, short sentences and the stressing of seemingly unimportant things kind of ticked me off, but towards the end of the book, when things got really interesting, it was the dramatic feel of the text that kept me going and prompted me to read the last 100 pages at one go.

Another thing worth mentioning is Zusak’s brilliant use of adjectives and descriptive verbs. I discovered so many English words I had never seen before! The novel has a lot of detailed describing of how people and the surroundings look – it is something that I enjoy immensely, but I know that some people find it extremely boring.

One more unique thing in the novel are these little pieces of information Death gives to the reader. Sometimes they’re short poems, sometimes extra notes, sometimes questions for the reader to use their own brains. They’re really effective: they tell some important things and events very briefly but with style – you simply cannot miss those relevant pieces of the story.

In addition to Liesel, the girl whose parents have been sent to a concentration camp and whose brother died before her, other major characters are her poor foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann, a Jewish boxer Max Vandenburg hiding in the Hubermanns’ basement and Liesel’s eccentric best-friend Rudy Steiner.  They’re all wonderfully layered and well-written characters that you actually care about. I think I liked Hans the most. That gentle-hearted WWI veteran really got to me.

I’ve been interested in history, especially World War II, for as long as I can remember. But only every so often I come across any kind of story told from the German point of view. If you think you’ve seen enough ‘American heroes’ shooting at evil Nazis, The Book Thief is a fresh change. It is about normal civilians trying to survive through the war.

I’m not going to deny it – I’m really bad at understanding themes and ‘messages’ of books and films. I would have to read or watch them at least twice to comprehend even remotely what they’re really about. If I now try to think of some kind of interpretation of the novel’s message, the only thing I can come up with is that even though life is hard and unfair at times, you should always have hope and wish for the better, and always do what you think is right.

I do recommend The Book Thief if you’re even mildly interested in history or just love to read. It became one of my personal favourites and I will surely read it again in the future. I’m also incredibly happy that I haven’t seen the movie yet, because I still have something to look forward to. First times are always unique; you can’t experience anything just the same way twice.