Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a captivating read if you are into World War stories. A fiction story from the eyes of 'death', Markus really gets to you by the end of it.
The book revolves around the story of a little girl growing up during the World War era. Starting with the death of her biological mother and brother, how she eventually grows up with her foster parents who are struggling to make ends meet in the Nazi Germany, the story keeps on getting grim by the page. Surrounded by pro-Nazi German community, the foster family hides a Jewish friend during the trying times when Jewish people are being thrown into concentration camps across Europe. The girl - Liesel, her foster father, Hans Hubberman and his wife Rosa Hubberman show exemplary courage trying to save Max - the Jew, grounded in the Hubberman basement for months before eventually being caught by the Germans, while the girl grows closer to the human side of herself guided by her foster father, with a war waging around them.
The title of the book comes from the other side of the girl, who, to quench her curiosity and thirst for learning how to read, ends up stealing multiple books off of the town's mayor's wife's library; eventually gets caught, and ends up becoming the reader for the entire town of Molching, Germany, where the story is based. With her best friend - Rudy, a teenage Liesel gets around to having fun, learning harsh life lessons, and ton of thievery involving not just books. It is a bittersweet time for the kids growing up in Nazi Germany - one, that death describes in a colorful manner while showing the grim side of it, in bits and pieces.
A good read overall - I would rate the book 4/5.
