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Hello! Today I'd like to talk about this book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
In Dutch is has been translates as, suprise suprise, de boekendief, meaning the book thief.
There are a 1001 reasons to love this book, but let's start at the beginning: the cover
I really like that its in sepia tones which indicate its set in history, I love the domono
stones,
because they are actually in the book but are also a great metaphor for people who are
dying and the holocaust,
I love the typography and the colors. If you look at the letters there is white, red and
black..ish,
and those colors come back in the story and.... together form the flag of nazi germany,
almost like somebody thought this through!
Its about a girl names Liesl who's on her way to her foster family because her parents
are somehow related to communists.
During the journey she loses her little brother and he is burried somewhere near the rail
tracks and during that funeral she finds her first book.
It's the gravediggers handbook, het handboek voor grafgravers, which isn't really something
for 10 year old girls,
but that doesn't really matter at that time, because she can't read yet. But she takes
is anyway as a token
and one day her foster father, Hans he is called, find that book and he learns her how
to read.
She completely falls for words and books and they take a very special place in her life
and are very important to her
and behind every book she acquires is a whole story and a different meaning.
This is a book about the second world war, it takes place in nazi germany, somewhere
near Munich,
but is it also a very original book and one the biggest reasons for that is that the story
is not told by Liesl or my Markus Zusak in some way,
but the narrator is Death. And it is so well executed!
Death isn't one of the creepy stereotypes but its a very thoughtful character, making
a lot of observations and he is also rather stressed and overworked.
I developed a lot of sympathy for Death and his presence, the way he is written actually
makes him a very conforting character.
He both positively and negatively suprised about humanity, negatively is sort of logical
since he is really busy with the holocaust,
but at the same time he sees how humans can also do very good things and how bad and good
things often happen simoultaneously,
or how really bad things inspire really good things and vice versa. This dichotomy in humans
was, very nicely, placed against the prosecution of jews
and how there was a sort of dehumanization of jews taking place in nazi germany and how
that made is easier for Germans to be dragged along with that.
And ehm... that makes you think. And as you might have noticed I kind of appreciate that
in books :)
I think the biggest theme that is discussed in this book is the power of words, both spoken
and written.
Hitlers propaganda; his speeches, mein kampf etc. changed a whole county and society, while
Liesl, on a more personal level, discovers how books can help her a lot,
she reads to other people when they hide as their street gets bombed for example, to ease
peoples minds.
Furthermore is becomes very obvious that peoples motives for doing what they do and the reasons
why they are like they are, are actually really complicated
All the characters in this book, they are not bad people. Yet as a society, something
goes collectively wrong with their morality and i find that extremely interesting.
So its definitely a critical novel, but not a cliché one.
Furthermore in the characters in this book are really... aaahhhhhh. The main character
is Liesl, but ehm.. the relations she has with others around her are so amazing!
2 other characters that are mentioned a lot are her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann.
Hans is the most friendly.... someone.....ever.
He understands Liesl and their relation; their father-daughter relationship is just so believable
He is kind of against the Nazi's, but is struggling to find a way to deal with that which is not
harming Liesl and his wife,
Rosa, on first instance is a very hard character, she's calling names, she is very strict, but
at the same time she really loves the people around her
and is really taking care of them and making sure they are alright,
There is also a boy who lives next door, Rudy Steiner, who becomes Liesl's best friend and
their friend ship is …. *gasp*
I want a friend like that... it worked so well! And then there is max, and you really
noticed that he sorts of despises himself,
because of the negative images the society projects on him and he feels really guilty
about everything and his very existence. They try to help him, but that is just really difficult.
The way they are described makes that you will really feel for all of the characters
in this book, and that you will love them.
Death, the narrator, says in the beginning that he doesn't really like tension building,
so often he spoilers things before they happen
and it just made me scared, even beforehand and... just ALL OF THE EMOTIONS!! I was crying
so much. Again.
The writing style of the book was awesome, not just because death narrated it, but there
were so many good metaphores.
If you read it, please let me know your thoughts and I will all you soon, bye!