The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Book Review

In The Book Thief By Markus Zusak, Death comments that “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know?... I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” The author does a good job of showing the contrast between tragedy and joy, they show it through the stories of Liesel and the other principal characters. As they read the book, sometimes readers feel happy, but sometimes it makes us want to cry as well. Showing these different emotions by telling stories makes the book interesting. 

The Book Thief takes place in Munich Germany during world war two. The story starts with Liesel losing her brother and her mother giving her up for foster care. She is driven to her new home where she meets her foster parents, Hans and Rosa. At first, Liesel does not want to be there but then she gets used to it and she enjoys living there. She developed a special bond with Hans. Her bond with Rosa wasn't as strong as her bond with Hans but she still loved her. There is also a boy named Rudy who Liesel liked as a friend but she thought it was annoying how he always asked Liesel to kiss her. Later in the book, a boy named Max comes to her house. At first, she was afraid of him but then they became good friends. But then he had to leave because he put their family in danger. After all, he was a Jew. They end up kissing but not in how we would expect. There was a bombing and almost everyone died except Liesel. She first said goodbye to her parents and then she saw Rudy. Liesel kissed Rudy because it would have made him happy and it was probably the only chance to do that. In the end, Liesel is working with Rudy's father and Max comes in. She hugs him. They end up being good friends and Liesel dies at an old age.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak describes a lot of brutalities. “When Liesel arrived in Molching, she had at least some inkling that she was being saved, but that was not a comfort. If her mother loved her, why leave her here on someone else’s doorstep? … The fact that she knew the answer—if only at the most basic level—seemed beside the point. Her mother was constantly sick and there was never any money to fix her. Liesel knew that. But it didn’t mean she had to accept it…. Nothing changed the fact that she was a lost, skinny child in another foreign place, with more foreign people. Alone.” Liesel struggled with the fact that her brother died and that she was put up in foster care. At the beginning of the book, she wasn't happy that she was going to live with Hans and Rosa. But she finally got used to living with them. She even enjoyed living with them. She especially liked Hans. They had a special bond.  That is why it was so sad to see Liesel say goodbye to Hans when he died. "Goodbye, Papa, you saved me. You taught me to read. No one can play like you. I'll never drink champagne. No one can play like you." Hans had also been through brutality. He was in the war and he came close to dying. A young person who was not nice, and he made Hans switch seats with him. He ended up dying in the seat because the seat exploded.

The Book Thief has some brutality in it, but it also has beauty in it. Many people were kind to Liesel. It first started with Hans when he taught her to roll cigarettes. “He completed the production of one cigarette and began on another. “Just like this.” It is how they started bonding, The mayor’s wife was also nice. She let Liesel use her library and read the books. “With wonder, she smiled. That such a room existed!” The mayor made her stop, but she enjoyed Liesel's company. Even though Rudy can sometimes annoy, he helped Liesel a lot. He helped save Liesel's book when it fell in the water. He did not get sick but he could have gotten hypothermia. “A book floated down the Amper River. A boy jumped in, caught up to it, and held it in his right hand. He grinned.”

The Book Thief showed the sides of beauty and brutality and I think the author did a good job of showing the two sides. I would recommend this book to others because it makes you feel emotions you don’t feel in other books. This book is one of my favorite books.