The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

A MUST READ!!


I cannot think of a book that deserves to be the No. 1 International Bestseller more...

"Here is a small fact. You are going to die."

This is the story of Liesel, a nine year old girl in Germany during World War II. This is a much needed change in perspective. What a beautiful step back from your typical World War book. I love that not only are we in Germany but we're a little girl who has discovered a passion for reading at a time in history when more books were burnt than read.

But it's the narrator... What a stroke of absolute brilliance to have death narrate the story! An amazingly genius idea that has made this books one of my favourite books of all time. Death has a touching personality. He is the friend, there to sooth us and take us on our way when the time comes. He has a coping mechanism because his jobs haunts him. He focuses on colours to take his mind off the fact that he must carry a soul away with him and remove a person from the world.

Isn't that beautiful?

I think this is also a great ego-check for us. Death is usually considered something that happens to US but in this book we happen to him. This is a very unconventional idea for a very unconventional book. For starters, Zusak continues to tell you what's going to happen in the book beforehand. This is a bold move which could have ended in disaster but I found it had the opposite effect. He told me someone would die in the chapter and I wanted to know who, I wanted to know how and I wanted to know if it would REALLY happen. By letting us know something would happen he creates great tension even though the character Death says that he's telling you what's going to happen because he doesn't want to create suspense. He makes you hope against hope that something would change or makes you worry that the characters you favour will end up being the death mentioned at the beginning of the chapter or one of the three mentioned on the cover.

This book talks to you. Death talks to you. He is familiar, kind and quirky. He made me smile. Isn't that an ironic sentence? Death made me smile... I have never read a book written like this before. There are pictures, lists, quotes, Death trails off the topic from time to time... I have to admit that sometimes I skipped the lists and then had to force myself to go back and read them because that is part of the book's finesse. Zusak's writing style of choice challenges the contemporary format of a novel and was a nice change in pace. The way it's written allows you to imagine that you are sat at a table with Death and he is telling you a story.

Who knows maybe one day he will.