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The Book Thief is special. It’s narrated by Death.

 

‘HERE IS A SMALL FACT. You are going to die. I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the A’s. Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.’

 

So true. This story is not nice. It does not end happily ever after; Death will tell you that right at the beginning. It’s a story about the rise of Nazism in Germany and the progress of war in the small village of Molching, close to the Dachau camp outside Munich. It’s a story about ordinary families and extraordinary people. And it’s about what happened to them: their courage, their cowardice, their attitudes, their love and their fates.

 

Time is fluid for Death. Death’s world is composed of colors not time.

 

‘People observe the colors of a day only at its beginning and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.’

 

There is beautiful writing on every page of this book. It’s a book to linger over like you would linger over a good meal or a good wine. Zusak also uses typography, layout and even pictures to tell his story. I have this book on Kindle. I recommend getting a physical copy. The book is constructed as a work of art, just as the book thief sees books as works of art to be handled and kept.

 

The huge gap between the rich and the poor in the village is front and central. The story centers around the people of Himmel Street, which is certainly not heaven, but neither is it hell. The poor people living there are always hungry, living on bread and pea soup. The rich in their part of town have personal libraries. The children of the poor learn to fight and steal and play football in the street. They are tough little beings.

 

The adults love their children. They only want to keep them safe. But sometimes their choices are the wrong ones.

 

One thing that will stick with you, I guarantee, is the directly insulting nature of German swearing. Liesel Meminger, the book thief of the title, is taken to a foster family, with a foster mother of extraordinary verbal repetitiveness.

 

‘In the beginning it was the profanity that made an immediate impact. It was so vehement and prolific. Every second word was either Saumensch or Saukerl or Arschloch. … “Saumensch, du dreckiges!” Liesel’s foster mother shouted that first evening when she refused to have a bath. “You filthy pig! Why won’t you get undressed” She was good at being furious. In fact, you could say that Rosa Huberman had a face decorated with constant fury. That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion.’ Rosa, you will probably not be surprised to discover, has strengths that could well be beyond us all.

They are strengths she is going to need.

 

‘The beginning of September.

It was a cool day in Molching when the war began and my workload increased.’

 

Another novel about World War Two? Aren’t there enough out there? There are many. This one is different. This one will survive.

 

The film made from The Book Thief, with Geoffrey Rush as Herr Huberman, Liesel’s stepfather, is well worth watching, if a little saccharine and coming-of-agish. In Death’s words it is altogether too nice. The book is more robust. This is definitely not one of those cases where you’ve seen the movie so you don’t need to read the book. But do watch the movie. I might well watch again, just to linger a little longer with these characters.