Tabs & Twists
The Book Thief
Narrated by Death, the story of a girl in Nazi Germany who steals books and learns how words can both save and destroy.
- Subgenre
- War dramaComing of age
- Setting / Period
- Nazi Germany
- First published
- 2005
- Pages
- 552
- Language
- English
Review
Liesel Meminger is sent to live with foster parents in a small German town in 1939. She learns to read from her foster father, steals books and shares them with neighbors, while the family hides a Jewish man in their basement.
Death as narrator is a daring choice that works surprisingly well. He is weary, tender and obsessed with the colors of the sky, and his interruptions give the novel a distinctive rhythm and an air of inevitability.
Some stylistic tricks may feel mannered, and the book is long, but the emotional payoff is considerable. It is a moving reminder of what ordinary people do under terror.
