The book is set in Nazi Germany. The main character of the story is Liesel, a young girl who is put in the care of foster parents by her mother because the authorities are targeting her own parents for being communists. On the journey to her new foster home, Liesel's six-year-old brother dies, and this traumatises her. At his sudden funeral, one of the gravediggers accidentally drops a book, and Liesel steals it. She will later acquire a taste for stealing books - she is the book thief of the title.
Liesel's foster father, Hans Hubermann (Papa), is a gentle and kind soul who instantly bonds with her. Her foster mother, Rosa Hubermann (Mama), is a foul-mouthed and hot-tempered lady who puts on a tough front but deep down loves her husband and loves Liesel. Papa is a trade painter who plays the accordion, Mama does the washing and ironing for rich people in the neighbourhood. They live on Himmel Street, one of the poorest streets in the township of Molching. Papa has always been kind to Jews, which has made life difficult for the family. Liesel becomes best friends with the boy next door, Rudy Steiner, who loves Jesse Owens and once painted himself black with charcoal and ran the 100 metre track at the local racecourse to imitate his hero.
Liesel is haunted by nightmares of her family (especially her dead brother) and wakes up almost every night. Her Papa always comforts her. One night, the gravedigger's book that Liesel stole falls out from its hiding place in the mattress, and Papa begins to teach the illiterate Liesel how to read. Once Liesel becomes literate, she begins to hunger for books. Her hunger is satiated somewhat by the mayor's wife, one of Mama's clients, who lets Liesel into the huge library at the mayor's home and read whatever she wants for as long as she wants. Liesel develops the habit of stealing books, and her primary target becomes the mayor's library, the reason for this being that the mayor's wife fires Mama once Germany became officially embroiled in World War II (tough times, not enough money to keep hiring to someone to do one's washing and ironing). She begins to steal other things too (mostly food), usually with Rudy as her crime partner. (It turns out that the mayor's wife had known of Liesel's book thievery all along, and even left the window open for Liesel to come in and steal from her library. But anyway.)
One day, a Jew named Max Vandenburg comes to the Hubermann residence. It transpires that Max is the son of a friend of Papa who saved Papa's life in World War I, and Papa promised the friend's (who died in battle) family that he would do anything to help them. Max had been living in hiding from Nazi soldiers for two years, and he had come to the Hubermann's house to see if they would hide him. Papa keeps the promise he made decades ago and hides Max down in the basement. Max and Liesel quickly become friends. Max used to be a fist-fighter. To pass the time, he works out, does crossword puzzles in newspapers that Liesel forages for him, writes down his thoughts and writes stories for Liesel. One day, when a throng of starving and sickly Jewish people are being marched through the town to the nearby concentration camp by Nazi soldiers, Papa instinctively offers one of them bread, and this catches the eye of one of the soldiers and most of the neighbours. Papa fears that the Nazi Party will target him and raid the house, which would result in them discovering Max. Everyone agrees that Max should leave the house for a while and come back in a few days. However, Max doesn't ever come back. Papa's fear is confirmed when he is sent off by the Party to help in the war efforts. Miraculously, he survives.
When the air raid threats arrive, several houses of Molching with deep basements are designated to be bomb shelters. The residents experience numerous air raid warnings as the war deepens, but each time, nothing happens to the town. Liesel keeps an eye out every time the soldiers march Jewish concentration camp prisoners through the village, to see if Max might be a part of the crowd. She does meet Max one day, an unbelievable miracle - he had been captured on the way to Stuttgart. Liesel also decides to write to the mayor's wife apologising for stealing books, and the mayor's wife gifts her with a notebook to write in: if she wasn't going to read any more books from the library, perhaps she might like to write one instead.
One night, bombs fall on Molching while everyone is sleeping. The Allies tricked the German army and no air raid sirens are heard. Liesel is the only one to survive, because she had been in the basement of her own home, writing down the story of her life in the notebook given to her by the mayor's wife. Later, when the war is over, she is reunited with Max.
It may not be apparent from the poor way I laid out the plot but as I said earlier (there's a much more comprehensive plot summary on Wikipedia if you want to check that out), this was a great read. The story jumps around a bit in time in certain places but that kept things interesting, kept up the suspense, and it wasn't confusing at all. The most unique thing about the book was that the story is told by Death, which made the whole thing super interesting. Because of this narrative device, parts of it were quite poignant, particularly when Death is reflecting on human nature and war. Zusak writes really well, very poetically and beautifully. Check out some of the prologue:
"I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulders. I will carry you gently away.
At that moment, you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I'll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.
The question is, what colour will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?
Personally, I like a chocolate-coloured sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every colour I see - the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavours, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off the stress. It helps me relax."
Another part of the book I really enjoyed was the second story that Max wrote for Liesel, called "The Word Shaker". A part of the story is that the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, craftily used words to achieve his objective of taking over the world. It struck me deeply because it's true. Hitler's tyranny began, and was sustained, with a bunch of well-chosen, powerful words. Max's second story begins like this:
"THERE WAS once a strange, small man. He decided three important details about his life.
- He would part his hair from the opposite side to everyone else.
- He would find himself a small, strange moustache.
- He would one day rule the world.
The young man wandered around for quite some time, thinking, planning and figuring out exactly how to make the world his. Then one day, it struck him - the perfect plan. He'd seen a mother walking with her child. She admonished the small boy at length, until finally, he began to cry. Within a few minutes she spoke very softly to him, after which he was soothed and even smiled.
The young man rushed to the woman and embraced her. "Words!" he grinned.
"What?"
But there was no reply.
He was already gone.
Yes, the Fuhrer decided that he would rule the world with words. "I will never fire a gun," he said. "I will not have to." Still, he was not rash. Let's allow him at least that much. He was not a stupid man at all. His first plan of attack was to plant the words in as many areas of his homeland as possible.
He planted them day and night, and cultivated them.
He watched them grow, until eventually, great forests of words had risen throughout Germany... It was a nation of farmed thoughts."
Captivating.
I'd totally recommend "The Book Thief". It's a wonderful read.
G.
No comments:
Post a Comment