Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Twilight Tuesday--The Book Thief Book Review

I know I wouldn't normally make this a Twilight Tuesday post, but this book fits the theme very well.  It is a heavy book, so I think the review works well here.

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

From goodreads:
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.




The Book ThiefThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me as a fine historical novel. I honestly had no idea what to expect except that it was WWII Germany.



From the beginning, I was enraptured like I have not been in a very long time. Imagine having Death narrate the book and actually feel sorry for him!  And the writing style was very reminiscent of classic literature. The author writes fantastic prose in a way few authors can in this post-modern era.




The characters were drawn in such a rich way. Death's grim humor and genuine concern for humanity caused the book to touch my emotions in a way most books cannot.




I guess I shall never tire of WWII stories. It is a period of history that repulses and intrigues me. Although this is fiction, I truly found myself caring about the characters. Death's cobntinued foreshadowing of events to come were always executed at exactly the right time. I think this book can touch anyone who decides to read it.




it does have some foul language, but I found that every use of it made sense. There were no sex scenes nor descriptive violence, but the book is harsh and real. Violence is there and unfortunately quite necessary.



View all my reviews

0 comments:

Post a Comment