The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Description
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 ...
Set during World War
II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking 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.
For an in-depth analysis of this book you can download the FREE Chicago Public Library's Guide to The Book Thief.
Editorial Review
Grade 9 Up – Zusak has
created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult
readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger
from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a
foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued
mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands.
The child arrives having just stolen her first book -although she has not yet
learned how to read - and her foster father uses it, The Gravedigger's Handbook, to lull her to sleep when she's roused by regular
nightmares about her younger brother's death. Across the ensuing years of the
late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a
peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayor's
reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal),
and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and
original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to
deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward.
Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of
satisfying details, giving Liesel's story all the nuances of chance, folly, and
fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.
(By Francisca
Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA)
Customer Review
Liesel Meminger is a Book Thief, living with a foster family in Germany
during World War Two. Torn from everything she's known, her foster father shows
her the power of words as the two of them share late night reading sessions of
The Grave Digger's Handbook. Her love of books ties her to others, including
the mayor's wife and Max, the Jew the family hides in the basement.
My own words escape me as I try to recount the beauty of this book in a
short review. Rarely have I read a book as moving, as profound, as this one.
Narrated by Death, this story is one that crawls under your skin and
reverberates your soul with its images of Nazi Germany, friendship, and loss.
The images stirred through Death's telling are so vivid, so wonderful, so
tragic. Zusak has a masterful command of language and I was astounded by the
way his words brought Liesel and her world to life. We follow Liesel over the
years as she learns the true meaning of family through her caring new Papa and
her friendships with Max and Rudy, the boy next door who idolizes Jesse Owens.
Just a small list of images that will stay with me forever:
- Liesel reading to the neighbors sitting terrified in a basement waiting for the bombs to fall around them
- A snowball fight in a basement
- Mama arriving at school to "yell" at Liesel
- A boy with candlelit hair standing up to a Nazi Youth Leader
- Death gathering up the souls of children softly
- The story of a Word Shaker
- An accordion player accepting a cigarette as payment
(By Tamela Mccann)
About the Author
Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about
Germany during WWII, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched
through his mother's small, German town. He always knew it was a story he
wanted to tell.
"We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys
and the 'Heil Hitlers' and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it
together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn't follow
the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses. So there's
another side to Germany," said Zusak in an interview with The Sydney
Morning Herald.
At the age of 30, Zusak has already asserted himself as one of
today's most innovative and poetic novelists. With the publication of The Book
Thief, he is now being dubbed a "literary phenomenon" by Australian
and U.S. critics.
Zusak is the award-winning author of four previous books for
young adults: The Underdog,
Fighting
Ruben Wolfe, Getting the
Girl, and I Am the
Messenger, recipient of a 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young
adult literature. He lives in Sydney.
Q&A with the author:
How did you become a writer?
When I was growing up, I wanted to be a house painter like my
father, but I was always screwing up when I went to work with him. I had a
talent for knocking over paint and painting myself into corners. I also
realized fairly quickly that painting bored me. When I was a teenager, I read
some books that brought me totally into their worlds. One was The Old Man and the Sea and another was What's Eating Gilbert Grape. When I read those books, I
thought, "That's what I want to do." It took seven years to get published
and there were countless daily failures, but I'm glad those failures and
rejections happened. They made me realise that what I was writing just wasn't
good enough, so I made myself improve.
Do you follow a set routine when you
write?
I basically have two routines. The first one is the non-lazy
routine, where I get up and work from about 7am and aim to finish by 11:30.
That usually sees me through till noon or twelve-thirty (with some time-wasting
in between). Then I'll take a long break and do a few more hours in the
afternoon. The lazy routine usually starts at 10am and I'll write longer into
the afternoon. The only time these routines really change is at the start or end
of a book, when I'm more likely to work at night. I can't face starting a book
early in the morning purely because self-belief levels are at their lowest for
me when I wake up. When I'm finishing a book, I will stay up longer and work
through the night, mainly out of desperation to finally get it done.
How did you come to write I Am The Messenger?
I was sitting in a park one night eating fish and chips and saw a
bank with a fifteen minute parking zone out the front, and I thought,
"Fifteen minutes, that's not very long, every time I go the bank it takes
a lot longer than that." I then thought, "What if you were in that
bank when it was being robbed and your car was out in the fifteen minute
parking zone? How would you get out to move your car to avoid getting a
fine?" That gave me the bungled bank robbery scene that led to everything
else in the book.
What do you do to get away from
writing?
Living in Sydney, I've taken the chance to start surfing again. One of my best memories of growing up is catching my first proper wave and surfing across it and my brother cheering at me from the shore. Many years later, I've started up again and I'm really loving it, as long as the waves are small enough! I also watch a lot of movies, especially when I'm struggling with a story I'm working on. I like watching the same ones over and over again, so I half watch and half think about the story.
Living in Sydney, I've taken the chance to start surfing again. One of my best memories of growing up is catching my first proper wave and surfing across it and my brother cheering at me from the shore. Many years later, I've started up again and I'm really loving it, as long as the waves are small enough! I also watch a lot of movies, especially when I'm struggling with a story I'm working on. I like watching the same ones over and over again, so I half watch and half think about the story.
Lastly, where do you get your ideas
from?
I used to lie about this, but now I actually know. I started writing when I was sixteen. I'm thirty now. I get my ideas from fourteen years of thinking about it.
I used to lie about this, but now I actually know. I started writing when I was sixteen. I'm thirty now. I get my ideas from fourteen years of thinking about it.
13 Facts about Markus
Zusak:
1.He has severe troubles writing
biographies about himself because he doesn't find himself particularly
inspiring.
2.He lives in Sydney near the Royal National Park, where he has lunch with the local deer, the kookaburras (a very tough brand of laughing birds) and other creatures.
3.He is a dog person, but he has two cats, Bijoux and Brutus. He named the second one.
4.His middle name is Frank. (When he hated the name Markus, his brother and one of his sisters suggested he use his middle name: Clearly, Frank was not really a step in the right direction.)
5.His three favorite books are:
1. What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges
2. The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen
3. My Brother Jack by George Johnston
6.The last book he read was Werewolves in their Youth by Michael Chabon, and the book he is currently reading is Ulysses by James Joyce.
7.In 2005, he attempted to read 52 books. He is writing a book about this ridiculous reading challenge and calling it 53 Killers. People ask him, "Why fifty-three and not fifty-two?"
8.His three favorite movies are:
1. Amelie by John Pierre Juenet
2. The Big Lebowski by the Cohen Brothers
3. Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer
(And although it's not a favorite, he also has a soft spot for The
Goonies.)
9.The last movies he's seen are A Very Long Engagement and The Motorcycle Diaries.
10.If he could meet anyone who ever lived, he would choose Michelangelo.
11.He got the idea for I am the Messenger when he was sitting in a park one night eating fish and chips and saw a bank with a fifteen minute parking zone out front. He thought, "Fifteen minutes, that's not very long, every time I go to the bank it takes a lot longer than that." He then thought, "What if you were in that bank when it was being robbed and your car was out in the fifteen minute parking zone? How the hell would you get out to move your car to avoid a fine?" (That's exactly what happens at the start of the book.)
12.He is riddled with self-doubt about I am the Messenger but is glad he wrote it because he loves the Doorman (the dog in the book).
13.His favorite number is thirteen.
Links
