The Book Thief ~ review

Publisher: Black Swan
Author: Markus Zusak
Format: Paperback | 560 pages
Dimensions: 128mm x 196mm x 40mm | 360g
Publication date: 1 January 2008
Publication City/Country: London
ISBN 10: 0552773891
ISBN 13: 9780552773898




PLOT

The book is about the little girl and her life during the second world war. Her name is Liesel Meminger and she is moved to her foster parents in Molching, Germany. Liesel goes through struggles of being poor, not being able to read, which is kind of an irony. But her foster father, Hans, the painter by trade, whom she is fond of teaches her how to read and write. So on she finds the joy of reading. The reading lessons start when she is waking up from nightmares at night, seeing her brother’s death all over and over. He teaches her the letters first. Later on he would read her the first stolen book out loud for her, The Gravedigger’s guide. When there were words she didn’t know, they would write them down on the wall in the basement. Soon enough the little girl has no struggle reading and her foster parents give her two books for Christmas, even though they are fighting the poverty. Her Papa exchanged them for cigarettes.

REVIEW ★★★★☆

It was divided into 11 in total, including the prologue and epilogue. It is a set of short stories included in it describing the life of the main character. What I find interesting is that the book is narrated by death. It was easy to read, thanks to the short sentences, so I had no trouble with understanding. Usually when it comes to long sentences I have to go back and re-read it to grasp the full meaning. The characters were well developed. To the very last details, including the inability to read by the main character, or the obsession with Jesse Owens by Rudy. Yet one thing stood out, which I didn’t like at all. The Death, apparently, finds joy in spoiling you the story before you even get to the mentioned part. 

I wouldn’t recommend the book for kids younger than 8 years, because of the violence that is going on in the book. Anyways it’s a book you can’t stop reading. (even though it took me some time, to be honest, because.. I had to watch Sherlock...yeah xP).