“When death captures me,” the boy vowed, “he will feel my fist on his face.”
“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”
This is a book to treasure, a new classic. I absolutely loved it. This book made me feel empty in a way that only truly beautifully written books can. When I finished reading the last word on the last page of this book, I felt empty; there is a paradoxical mix of feeling incredibly saddened that the book is over but also completely satisfied because the ending was the best ending you could have ever hoped for and more. Together, those feelings left me feeling empty and breathless.
The story set in Germany in the years 1939-1943, The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, narrated by Death who has in his possession the book she wrote about these years. So, in a way, they are both book thieves. Liesel steals randomly at first, and later more methodically, but she's never greedy. Death pockets Liesel's notebook after she leaves it, forgotten in her grief, amongst the destruction that was once her street, her home, and carries it with him.
Liesel is effectively an orphan. She never knew her father, her mother disappears after delivering her to her new foster parents, and her younger brother died on the train to Molching where the foster parents live. Death first encounters nine-year-old Liesel when her brother dies, and hangs around long enough to watch her steal her first book, The Gravedigger's Handbook, left lying in the snow by her brother's grave.
Her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Herbermann, are poor Germans given a small allowance to take her in. Hans, a tall, quiet man with silver eyes, is a painter (of houses etc.) and plays the accordian. He teaches Liesel how to read and write. Rosa is gruff and