The Book Thief

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, was recommended to me by my sister and also a number of book boards/blogs that I read. I shied away from it for some time because it’s in the Young Adult genre. Call me crazy but I do not understand some 20, 30, 40+ year olds’ obsessions with Young Adult literature. There is nothing about Twilight that appeals to me. I don’t get it. That being said, I didn’t feel The Book Thief was juvenile at all and it was certainly one of the longer books I’ve read lately at more than 500 pages. I wanted to give it a fair shake.

Told from Death’s point of view, The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a girl in World War II Germany who has been sent to live with foster parents after her mother can no longer care for her and her brother dies. Liesel steals a book on her way to her new life as her obsession with reading and books begins. Her foster father teaches her to read as the story watches her come of age in a war torn country. With Nazis and Jews fighting all around her, Liesel learns valuable lessons about the human race and survival. I’d go into more detail but I really don’t want to give anything away.

The Book Thief was filled with emotion. There was suspense, entertainment and certainly sadness. Do not be deterred by the length of this book. It moves along relatively quickly and is quite a page turner so it held my interest well; I finished it in under a week. I really enjoyed all the characters in The Book Thief. Zusak has a brilliant way of unraveling a story and introducing all plot elements.

I suppose I shouldn’t turn my nose up at Young Adult literature any longer. I have myself on the hold list for a few others. Hopefully they will be just as good at The Book Thief.

P.S. This was Book #41!!