The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

There are some periods of history that are particularly fertile ground for works of fiction or film.  How many books have you read set during the Tudor and Georgian ages of England, the Civil War era of the United States, or Revolutionary France?  These are all times of either great extravagance and change or great violence and upheaval, and in these periods the author doesn't lay a lot of groundwork – we already know.  These settings come with the additional advantage of being in the (relatively) distant past, by which I mean that nobody alive today remembers it.  Yet there is one that is ubiquitously synonymous (at least in the Western world) with suffering, hate and death: Nazi Germany. 

A complete list of books, films and television programs set in Nazi Germany and during the Holocaust is really too long to set out here, but do include such masterpieces as: Schindler's List, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, Sophie's Choice, The Pianist, The Reader, Life is Beautiful and The Damned.  This is illustrious company to have to match up to, and that is before one considers the moral responsibility to not sully one of history's great tragedies with a mediocre portrayal; it is quite another thing to produce something that not only reaches these lofty heights, but also exceeds many of them yet that is exactly what Markus Zusak does in The Book Thief.

Now I would like to start this review with a couple of personal peeves from other reviews: this is not a Holocaust book.  Yes: it is set in Nazi Germany during The Holocaust, and Yes: it does feature a family hiding a Jewish man in their house, and Yes: The book does deal with the repression and death associated with it BUT calling The Book Thief a Holocaust novel is like saying that 1984 is only state control over the behaviour of its citizens - it is a major theme, but it is about so much more than just that one facet.

I also have another peeve: this is NOT a YA book.  It does feature as its main character a child, but so does Child's Play and I'm not sure anyone is quite old enough to watch that!  While the character of Death does have somewhat of a sensitive and regretful sensibility, that doesn't have to make it YA.  For me, a YA book is one that is marketed at teens.  They generally feature a single main character dealing with the problems of youth and growing up.  They have first kisses and loves, friendship and familial relationships, and experimentations with new experiences.  The Book Thief, though you could at a pinch call it a coming-of-age story, and it does have familial relationships at its heart, is not this.  This is general fiction, marketed and read by all.

Anyway, enough with my rants - let me tell you a little more about this awesome book:

The Book Thief opens with a monologue written by 'Death'.  He talks about the Second World War period being a time of intense activity for him, a period where he was needed constantly.  He portrayed shown largely in the Grim Reaper representation, though he does talk about being rather amused by the archetype.  He then introduces the main character, a young girl by the name of Liesel Merminger, who is given up for adoption by her communist mother who knew that, in her care, she would never be safe.  She is sent to the Munich suburb of Molching to live with the kindly Hans and the foul-mouthed if loving Rosa Hubermann.  As a blonde(ish) Lutheran German pre-adolescent, Liesel is not at risk from persecution - but she still experiences the horrors of the Nazi state and the foreign and domestic wars it waged.

 Liesel is the eponymous 'Book Thief' and steals her first book, the unlikely 'Gravedigger's Handbook' at the cemetery during her brother's burial.  This becomes her link with the past, the only tangible connection to a mother she barely remembers and a brother whose death she dreams of daily.  Her later book thieving is for a very simple reason: to even the score.  She has lost so much – had so much taken from her – that taking books is, to her, the only rational response.  She develops a passion for words, yet it is also words that Zusak presents as being responsible for the death that surrounds her.  She finds herself enchanted by them and driven on just as Germany was enchanted by the words of Hitler.

One thing that really marks this book out is Zusak's style.  By having the story written by someone omniscient, he is able to do what I call 'Mean Intentional Spoiling'.  In this way he is able to tell you a character is going to die several chapters before it happens, which he uses to devastating effect.  You are always kept on your toes and you are never able to feel comfortable reading this book because you have no idea when Zusak is about to drop a bombshell on you, something that does literally happen at one point.  This 'spoiling' is a product of Zusak's style of jumping chronologically about, especially when relating the parallel stories of Liesel and the Jewish refugee Max.  This is done in often a fairly whimsical style but when the author wants to be brutal he does so without remorse

The Holocaust of course rears its head in the narrative, and the main way this is interacted with is through Max.  Max is the son of a soldier who saved Hans (Liesel's foster father) during the Great War and flees his home to the Hubermanns in the wake of anti-Semitic persecution.  He is hidden away from sight and his only interaction with the world at all is through Liesel.  They find that they are kindred spirits: orphans of hate, fascinated by the written word and haunted by their past experience.  They develop a powerful bond, and it is this that I think is the most powerful and beautiful part of the story.

And it is these bonds of friendship and family that are the most important ones in this story.  I haven't talked much about Liesel's relationships with her foster parents or her best friend Rudy because frankly I don't want this review to go on forever, but these relationships are vital.  If books form the trunk of this story, then it is the relationships that Liesel develops that are the flowers and blossom.  It is these relationships, that are borne through a shared suffering but also a shared hope, that are shown as being the most powerful.  In fact it is this friendship that in the end saves Liesel's life.

It should not come as any surprise to anyone having read this far that I absolutely loved this book.  It is not the easiest read, but it is a triumph.  It waded into a topic considered sacrosanct and a setting saturated by brilliant works, but yet it manages to rise effortlessly to the top.  It is quite simply, and utterly, brilliant.

Read it.

Read it now!

9/10

Favourite Quotes

• "I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."
• "Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain."
• "The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both." 
• "Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out."
• "I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate."