Book details

Other books

Other people who viewed this bought | Other books in this series | Other books in this category
Showing items 1 to 10 of 10

 

Full description | Reviews | Bibliographic data
Showing 1 to 4 of 4 results

Reviews for The Book Thief

Write a review

  • A must read, even for people not interested in history!5

    MissPageTurner I admit it, The Book Thief and I had a more than slow start. The first one-hundred pages I felt all feelings between anger, confusion and boredom. At that point I was determined to give it one out of five stars when I would ever make it through this novel. I even thought about quitting reading. Now, let me turn this one start into five full stars!
    I think I just wasn't used to the extraordinarily different writing style of Zusak.

    The Book Thief was my book for train rides, and with its almost six hundred pages endured one whole semester. I laughed, I cried (a lot, so I am glad that I read the last chapters at home), sometimes I smiled like crazy.

    This novel is narrated by death, literally. A narrator I never came across before, but the best for the job of telling the book thief's story there can be. He is sensitive and human and sometimes almost annoying when "destroying" a later death scene by announcing it several hundred pages before it happens. Sometimes he is silently thinking, other times more talkative, so that my eyes often got teary even when I was pages away from the next victim of war. We get to know a death that sees the world and its transience with a spectrum of colours and magic. I'm in love with Zusak's philosophy and poetry of death.

    The Book Thief is divided into ten parts, each one stands for a significant book that was part of Liesel's life.

    Despite the extremely sad and moving happenings and the story, I often couldn't suppress a grin that Zusak conjured with so much charm and wit. I found scenes, moments that radiated with warmth and happiness, although the burden of the events of war never fully left my reading consciousness.

    Furthermore Zusak provides characters that couldn't be more diverse. Liesel, the book thief and the girl who gives this novel its name, is a touch, young girl with a personality that lets even death linger for a tiny moment to watch her next movement. Rudy is a young man that never lets corruption and power win him over, sticks to his morals and is always there for his best friend Liesel.
    Characters like Liesel's foster parents, the jew Max and various neighbours enrich the story, in the end I cared for every single one of them.

    Zusak certainly doesn't claim to provide a complete account of historical occurrences and display all National Socialist events. The Book Thief is a well founded and authentic novel with several true events and important dates, persons mentioned.

    The applied language is in the true sense of a word terribly beautiful. Frequently I felt a huge admiration for the expression of such an innocent poetry in such a horrible time. In addition many sketches and lovely fables soften the events.

    Not only books are stolen, but the heart of each single reader. Liesel Meminger, death and Markus Zusak took my heart after an initial light breeze by storm.

    THE VERDICT

    5/5 ***** Zusak is the magician behind a beautifully written The Book Thief, a novel set during World War II, about a single girl and the philosophy of death.

    You don't need to be a history professor to read and love The Book Thief. Zusak invites his readers to take part in the story of Liesel Meminger and her friends and learn new perspectives of life and death. The Book Thief is a standalone novel with the character of a whole library of colourful books. by MissPageTurner

  • brilliant5

    Karen Crawford I love this book so much I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.
    I was given it as a gift and had never heard of it at the time.
    I started reading and couldn't stop- not much got done until I'd finished it.
    It was unpredictable and the characters grow on you so much.
    Marckus Zusak is a fantastic writer and is a real story teller.
    It had me crying but also laughing.
    A great read! by Karen Crawford

  • Just Read it5

    Tempest This book was one I had resisted reading for some time, as I though "Who needs another holocaust story?" Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. Moving, rich, engaging..An absolutely wonderful read.

    Narrated by "Death" a compassionate, and overworked, lovely Death, a Death who remembers the colours.

    You are told, very early, what will transpire. Even so, as I came to the last chapters, I found myself sobbing, deep, hacking sobs, much to the amazement of my husband, who dryly looked at me and said "So, you have reached the sad bit have you, pet?"

    It has been a year since I read it, and I am still moved by it. by Tempest

  • Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com5

    TeensReadToo THE BOOK THIEF is on of the most memorable books I've read in a long time. It takes place during World War II in Molching, Germany. It's the writing, the unusual narrator (death), and the characters sketched in vivid colors that make this novel so difficult to put down.

    Meet Leisel, the book thief, whose first encounter with death occurs on a train with her mama and brother - on their way to meet her foster parents.

    Meet Rosa Hubermann, Leisel's new mama, whose rough, crude exterior can't hide the heart inside.

    Meet Hans Hubermann, Leisel's firm foundation. The man who stays up with her after her nightmares, who teaches her to read her first stolen book, who finds empathy in a slice of stale bread.

    Meet Max, a Jew, the shadow in the basement, a skeleton later seen marching, or more aptly, stumbling, down the road.

    Meet Rudy, the lemon-haired Jesse Owens, Leisel's partner in crime and best friend, the one who yearns for Leisel's kiss.

    Meet the Führer, the invisible, potent master of words.

    Meet death, in a metal cockpit, on a snow-covered field mottled in red, hanging from a rafter at the end of a rope, sitting at a simple kitchen table, under a pile of rubble that used to be a home.

    Markus Zusak fills the reader with vivid images of humans at war, humans led to the unthinkable by a force they cannot control. Some go willingly, others have no choice. Those left behind are merely attempting to survive each day as life crumbles around them. Leisel survives by stealing books.

    As I read the final chapters of THE BOOK THIEF, I literally had to close the book to get my emotions under control before reading on to meet death. It was inevitable -- he would meet me at the end of the book. As I emerged from the story at the turning of the back cover, my reality felt so jarringly wrong. It was as though I went from a black and white silent movie to a new world: bright, free, and colorful. You cannot read this novel without feeling a resounding resolve that this should never, ever, happen again.

    The writing is incredible. Mr. Zusak gave death such an unusual perspective. His descriptive phrases are nothing short of brilliant. THE BOOK THIEF is a powerful read that should not be missed by anyone, teen or adult!

    *Gold Star Award Winner! by TeensReadToo

Write a review
Showing 1 to 4 of 4 results