This is not a recent book, but the novel has relevance nowadays given attempts by Leftists in NZ (see this post) and in other countries to ban books they don’t like, a standard trait of despotic regimes.

by Roger Childs

An extraordinary story

A girl living in Nazi Germany, Liesel Meminger, is the book thief and her story is told by Death. It starts in 1939 and at the age of 11, Liesel becomes an orphan when her Communist mother is taken away and her younger brother dies. 

At his burial, she picks up a book dropped by an apprentice grave-digger – The Gravedigger’s Handbook — and so her love affair with books begins.

She is taken to Molching, a small town near Munich, and becomes the foster daughter of Hans and Rosa Hubermann a poor couple living in Himmel (Heaven!) St. Hans is a painter and gets offside with many of the locals and the authorities for painting some Jewish houses. 

Liesel cannot read and initially refuses to have a bath. Her prospects don’t look good, but she is resilient and confident, and two developments involving the kids of the town give her credibility:

• She beats up a school bully
• Put in goal in a Himmel St football match she saves a penalty struck by her next door neighbour Rudy.

Rudy grows to become Liesel’s closest friend.

Markus Zusak produces a classic

Unsettling, thought provoking, life affirming, triumphant and tragic, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told. An important piece of work, but also a wonderful page-turner. –The Guardian

17 million copies have been sold in 63 languages and made into a feature film, see below.

With The Book Thief Australian writer Markus Zusak has crafted a remarkably original story based around poor German civilians struggling to survive in World War Two. There is a varied cast of characters – adults and children — and range from the Mayor’s wife, who has a wonderful library to young Rudy Steiner who will do anything to get a kiss from Liesel! 

Well-drawn characters are a strong element of Zusak’s story and Death often interrupts the flow of the story to provide the reader with plenty of useful details about the cast; to give the translations of various German words, and outline key features about groups and developments in the period 1939-1943.

Not surprisingly, the Jewish situation features and the Hubermann’s decide to hide a young Jewish boxer in their basement. Liesel gradually becomes a close friend of Max. The Dachau concentration camp is just down the road and periodically starving, trudging Jews are marched through Molching. During one of these treks Hans gets himself into trouble when he drops some bread on the road in front of a group of emaciated prisoners.

The story never drags and as the war plays out things become tougher for the inhabitants of Molching. The reader is treated to a superb account of what life must have been like for German civilians just wanting to get on with life in peaceful conditions.  

Eventually the conflict brings bombing raids to the town, which means Himmel St. inhabitants need to gather below street level in the large basement of a neighbour’s house. While waiting for the all-clear sirens to go Liesel reads to the group.

A fascinating, highly original tale

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Death takes the reader on a story that has drama and terror, humour and enjoyment, fear and tension, emotion and love, brutality and tragedy, as protagonist Liesel Meminger interacts with family, young people, adults and Nazis, while growing up in war-torn Germany.

 Like the rest of Molching’s citizens she goes through the motions of “Heil Hitlering” as required; belonging to the Bund Deutscher Mädel (the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth which was for boys) and watching parades through the town. As she matures she becomes a more responsible individual able to cope with the increasing challenges of Germany at war.

The story builds to a dramatic and horrific climax. 

P.S. Liesel eventually kisses Rudy! 

The Book Thief was made into a movie in 2013, staring Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson and Sophie Nélisse. It was filmed in the eastern city of Görlitz, one of the few that escaped being bombed in World War 2 and for that reason is often used for such movies.