A worldwide bestseller for young and adult readers and the basis for the film of the same name
The young Australian author has written a powerful, moving and extremely readable story. He made Death his narrator. Death is a seemingly uninvolved spectator, with perfect detachment, with a distinctive perspective; has all the qualifications to be a witness and a storyteller. But Liesel Meminger's story is so extraordinary that even Death has to admit his concern for living people, his emotion at their suffering, his bitterness and relief at the end. Even Death has a heart. Zusak's book goes to sad places, but it's certainly not depressing.
The book became an international bestseller soon after its publication. First published in 2006, it has sold 1,000,000 copies worldwide this year. Readers appreciate Zusak's narrative skill, the original choice of narrator, the poetic language, but especially the theme of the book. Zusak has managed to convey the Second World War and the Holocaust in an original and impressive way, even to those who know the period only from literature, films or narratives. He depicts it both through the eyes of omniscient and omnipresent death and through the words of a child, moreover a child living in Germany, a defeated country. However, it focuses more on everyday life in the hinterland, where the war is slowly and creeping in.
According to Zusak's own words, he was inspired to write the book by the story of his mother, who lived through the war in Munich and experienced the bombing of the city, and witnessed a scene that gained an important place in The Book Thief: a parade of Jews marching to the concentration camp passed through the town; A man is said to have handed one of them a piece of bread and received a few lashes from a soldier in the escort. Around this scene, which combines kindness and cruelty, two extremes of human nature, grows a vast story that can captivate.
