Staff Pick
One of the most effecting WWII books I've ever read, The Book Thief is narrated by the Grim Reaper (who is extremely busy, as it's 1939 in Nazi Germany.) Liesel lives with a foster family and becomes friends with the Jew hidden in her basement. Liesel's life is complicated with danger and scarcity but there is one thing she cannot resist: a book — no matter the consequences. Absolutely stunning, this novel is brilliant, and a must-read for all lovers of WWII fiction. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who 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.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
Review
"Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Zusak doesn’t sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five: with grim, darkly consoling humor.”
Time Magazine
Review
"Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour
de force to be not just read but inhabited." The Horn Book Magazine (Starred Review)
Review
"The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger. It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that."
New York Times
About the Author
Markus Zusak is the author of I Am the Messenger, a Printz Honor Book and Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist, and the international bestseller, The Book Thief, which has been translated into over thirty languages and has sold nine million copies around the world. He is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens and lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children.