The Book Thief

By Markus Zuzak

Summary:

It's just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she discovers something she can't resist- books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found.
With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

My Thoughts:

I listened to this book there and back on my trip to New York.
It was an 8 hour trip there, and a 12 hour trip back.
I took several audio books with me, but as it turned out, I only listened to this one. And I feel like that is a pretty big accomplishment, considering that this recording was 13hours and 50mins long.
But it was worth it.
I had been meaning to read this book for a long time.
I've had it out from the library several times, but never actually started reading it.

I used to listen to audio books ALL the time when I was younger.
Mostly so I could have something productive to listen to while doing something crafty.

To be honest I had missed the experience of being read aloud to.

I liked how this story was narrated by Death.
At first I thought that seemed rather morbid, and I guess it is, but being set in the heart of World War Two it fit perfectly and was really truly beautiful.

I fell in love with each of the characters. The Narrator of the audio book did a fantastic job of bringing them all to life with clear accents and tones for each of them.

I knew I was going to cry.
Half way through I had become so involved with the characters, and I knew it wasn't going to be a happy ending.
I did cry.
But in a way it was a happy ending.

I loved it.