The book thief
A First reaction
My first reaction wasn’t very good, because it wasn’t very interesting. But after reading the first part of the book this feeling was gone because from that moment the story became clear to me.
B Summary
Himmel Street is a happy place for Liesel. She helps Rosa with collecting the laundry from different wealthy inhabitants of Molching.
The Nazi Party’s presence became increasingly more apparent in Molching. In addition to the destruction of some Jewish shops and yellow stars that have already been painted on door fronts and windows, Liesel and Rudy were required to join the Band of German Girls and Hitler Youth. To celebrate the Führer’s birthday, the people of Molching gathered for a bonfire during where they burned enemy propaganda, including some books. Liesel saw one book that survives the fire and hides it under her shirt. She was beginning to realize that Hitler is responsible for her brother’s death and her mother’s absence. Ilsa Hermann saw that Liesel took the book and decided to share her own love of books with Liesel by inviting her into her library.
Meanwhile, Max Vandenburg who was a Jew, was hiding in a storage closet in Stuttgart and received help from his friend Walter Kugler. Walter has been in touch with Hans and asked if Hans was willing to keep the promise he made to Max’s mother after World War I. It was Max’s father who saved Hans’s life during World War I and taught Hans to play the accordion. Hans promised Frau Vandenburg that if she ever needed something, she could ask him. Hans agrees to hide Max in his basement and sent the key to his house inside the front cover of Mein Kampf.
After Max arrived at 33 Himmel Street, Liesel is curious about the man in her basement but also somewhat afraid of him. She began to realize that they have much in common. They both have nightmares, they both are fist-fighters, and they both have lost their families. They also shared the same view of Hans Hubermann, namely that he and his accordion are sources of safety. Liesel does the best she can to bring the outside world to Max, describing the weather to him, bringing him snow, and delivering presents to the foot of his bed when he falls ill. She continued to play with Rudy and go to school, all while keeping Max a secret and listening to his stories about his past at night.
Max also understood the power of words. For Liesel’s birthday, he painted over the pages of Mein Kampf and makes a book for Liesel called The Standover Man. It is the story of his life.
Because most of the people on Himmel Street are struggling for money, Rosa Hubermann lost her washing jobs, including the one for Ilsa Hermann. Meanwhile, Liesel and Rudy join a gang of youths who steal apples and potatoes from farmers. One night, Liesel took Rudy to the mayor’s house and earns her title as book thief when she sneaks in through the window and took The Whistler from Ilsa’s library.
The summer of 1942 was primarily a happy time for Liesel. She spent it mostly with Hans when he blackens the windows for homes and shops in Molching in preparation for air raids. He told her stories and plays his accordion, and at one home they even share a glass of champagne with the residents. Rudy continued training for the Hitler Youth carnival. He wins three medals, but he gets disqualified from the fourth race.
Shortly after these somewhat lighthearted days, the air raids began. Liesel and her family, along with Rudy and his family, took shelter in the Fiedlers’ basement because they’ve been told their basement is not deep enough to protect them from the bombings. They must leave Max behind. On one occasion in the Fiedlers’ basement, Liesel began to read from The Whistler. Everyone gathers around her and the words calm them as they calm Liesel. Those in the basement stay even after the all-clear signal has been given to hear the end of the chapter. Liesel realizes that books were her kind of accordion.
Parades of Jews came through Molching on their way to Dachau. Liesel sees their suffering, and Hans tried to help one of them. Because of Hans’s actions, they must send Max away because Hans is afraid the Gestapo will come to search their house. The Gestapo never comes for him, though; instead, they come for Rudy to offer him a place in a special school but he refused. Eventually, both Hans and Alex Steiner are punished for their actions. Hans was sent to serve with the LSE, an air raid unit, in Stuttgart, and Alex goes to Vienna, Austria, to serve at an army hospital. Himmel Street became a very forlorn place.
Rosa gave Liesel a book called The Word Shaker, which Max made for her. It contains many of Max’s stories, thoughts, and sketches. The fable about the word shaker catches Liesel’s attention. In it, Max describes a girl who is able to use words like some of Hitler’s most skilled word shakers, but she uses her words to help her friend and remove small bits of hate from a forest dominated by cruelty. Her words were for good, not for evil.
Hans Hubermann avoided a fatal accident while he was driving on an LSE truck. Reinhold Zucker, who holds a grudge against Hans because of a card game loss, takes Hans’s usual seat on the truck and dies in the accident. Hans got a broken leg and he was forced to go home.
In 1943, the Jews continued to march through Molching, and Liesel always looked for Max. One day, she saw him and ran to him, but a Nazi soldier tosses her from the parade. She got up and enters the parade again, reciting words from The Word Shaker. She was whipped, and Rudy has to hold her for going back into the parade.
Liesel returned to Frau Hermann’s library and became angry with the words, how they can fill her up, but can also bring so much hate to so many people. She tore the pages from a book and then writes a note to Frau Hermann to apologize and say that she won’t come back. Ilsa Hermann shows up at Liesel’s front door and gives her a black journal so that she can write the words of her own story, after three days.
Then, in October 1943, bombs fell on Himmel Street while everyone was sleeping. But Liesel was sitting in the basement writing her story in her journal. She survived the bomb. When she emerged from the basement, she found the bodies of those she loves. She was taken away by air raid officers, and it is at this moment that Death finds and takes her book, The Book Thief. This is how he knew her story.
Ilsa Hermann and the mayor collected Liesel from the police station and took her home with them. Alex Steiner is relieved of duty after he hears about the bombings and he found Liesel. They spent a lot of time together, going for walks and hiking to Dachau after its liberation. She spent a lot of time with Alex in his shop, and one day, in 1945, Max Vandenburg showed up. They had a reunion mixed with much happiness and great sadness.
Death ends the story by telling us about Liesel Meminger’s death, how she lived a long life in Sydney with her husband, three children, and many grandchildren. When Death goes to collect her, he sets her down so they can walk together for a while. He showed her The Book Thief and wanted to ask her so many questions about humans. But he can’t understand them, how they can contain so much lightness and darkness. He doesn’t ask these things, though. All he can tell her is that humans haunt for him.
C Facts
1. The title of the book is the book thief, which was written by Markus Zusak. The original book was published in 2006 by Knopf. The book has 584 pages.
2. Zusak was born on the 23th of June 1975 in Sydney, Australia. His mother Lisa is originally from Germany and his father Helmut is from Austria. They emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s. Markus is the youngest of four children and has two sisters and one brother. He attended Engadine High School and briefly returned there to teach English while writing his books. He studied English and History at the University of New South Wales and he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education.
Zusak is the author of several books. His first three books are “The Underdog”, “Fighting Ruben Wolfe” and “When Dogs Cry”. These were released between 1999 and 2001 and they were all published internationally and got a few numbers of awards. The book thief and the messenger are his most well-known books.
The Book Thief was published in 2005 and has been translated into more than 30 different languages. Beside winning awards in Australia and overseas, The Book Thief has held the number one position on the New York Times best-seller list in some countries worldwide and is still set to be released in many other countries. The book thief was adapted as a film of the same name in 2013.
Markus Zusak is still writing, so he may reveal some more books in the future.
3. Markus Zusak has written another book which won some awards, just like the book thief. The book is named “The messenger”.
4. Liesel Meminger is a girl who moves to an outskirt of Munich. Liesel is the book thief. During the story Liesel learn how to read. I think Liesel is a brave girl, because she had lived during a war and she moved to someone she didn’t know.
5. The title of the book is “The book thief”, this refers to Liesel Meminger. Because Liesel had stolen some books during the story.
6. The genre of this book is historical, because the story was set during World War II. The story is set in an outskirt of Munich, Germany. Not everything in the story could happen nowadays, because there is on the moment no world war. The book is written in a chronologic way. Because there aren’t any flashback or flash-forwards. The writing style of this book wasn’t very difficult, because the story was easy to understand. All the chapters were told by Death, so there weren’t changes of perspective during the book.
D Quotation
“The consequence of this is that I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. (Death)”
I think tis quotation of the book will give a view about the story, because during the story you see also people at their best and worst. And that contrast could you see during the entire story.
E Final verdict
I did like this book, because you will learn a little bit more about living during a war. But sometimes the book was very long-winded. Especially when the story was about details, which were not that important for the story itself. If I had to mark this book I will give it about a 6,0 because it’s a good book, but sometimes are there too many details told.