The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief

A book narrated by death, in Germany, during World War Two. An orphaned child, the dangers of not belonging to the Party, hiding a Jew in your basement. Starvation, terror and war. Sounds pretty grim, right? Wrong. This is a whimsical and intimate story, and if you’re like me, you’ll read 350 pages in a single sitting.

The book takes place entirely during the war. It doesn’t see out the end of the war, so there’s no notion of happily ever after (although there is a satisfying epilogue). The characters’ reality is finding enough food, making sure homework is done, and building air raid shelters only when they have to. Liesel is the orphaned child who goes to foster parents Hans and Rosa. She has already encountered death at the start of the story, but doesn’t know that death has also seen her. Book thief is her nickname, but the individual thefts are markers for significant change in Liesel’s character, rather than the central thread of the story.

Her best friend is Rudy, the boy next door. The author uses Rudy’s compulsory membership in Hitler Youth to convey ordinary people’s fear of the Party and its total domination over German lives.

Then there is Max, the Jew who hides in Liesel’s basement. The blurb describes him as a Jewish fist-fighter, which I found a little misleading – Max is not tough, or menacing. He’s terrified, sickly and completely cowed by what’s happened to him and his family.

The other central character is Hans, Liesel’s foster father. He is a gentle, accordion-playing painter. He doesn’t join the Party, agrees to keep Max in the basement and ultimately, accidentally, forces him to leave.

Death is a great narrator. Instead of being miserable or ghoulish, it sees wonder in just about every human emotion and in the actions of the protagonists. Death also has a wonderful way with words:

Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew.”

If you know much about twentieth century history, you’ll know the terror of Stalin’s rule in Russia, and probably something about China’s cultural revolution under Mao. We look now and see how these leaders bent, and then destroyed, the will of their people. Nazi Germany is not often portrayed in the same way. Hitler’s hold on the German psyche was far more insidious. The danger of not belonging to the Party isn’t something many of us associate with German life during World War Two. Rationing, air raids and sending soldiers off to fight are all Allied history. We don’t often see the ordinary people behind Hitler and the Third Reich.

Portraying Nazi Germany through the eyes of children and peasant Germans is no mean feat. This is a beautifully written story, evoking just the right amounts of sympathy, horror and compassion to remind you of the circumstances, but also celebrating the small acts of humanity that make these ordinary German people the same as the Allies – the same as all of us.

Read it if you like Memoirs of a Geisha, The Kite Runner, or Jodi Piccoult’s books. Don’t come looking for a blood-and-guts account of World War Two.

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zukas
Format: Paperback, 584 pages
Publisher: Picador