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The Book Thief
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The Book Thief (2005) (edit title/settings)

by Markus Zusak (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Set during World War II in Nazi Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing something she can’t resist–-books. With the help of her best friend, Rudy,... read more

Summary edit see section history

The book begins with Death, the narrator of story, briefly describing the three times he encountered Liesel Meminger--or, as he calls her, "the Book Thief". The first time is when Liesel's younger brother dies suddenly of a cough on a train to Molching, a suburb of Munich, where they're being... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The book begins with Death, the narrator of story, briefly describing the three times he encountered Liesel Meminger--or, as he calls her, "the Book Thief". The first time is when Liesel's younger brother dies suddenly of a cough on a train to Molching, a suburb of Munich, where they're being sent to live with foster parents. Liesel and her mother stop in a town to bury the boy, where Liesel steals her first book, "The Grave Digger's Handbook", from the cemetery even though she is unable to read. Liesel is then taken to 33 Himmel Street, in a poor neighborhood in Molching, where her new foster parents and a vivid group of characters live. Liesel's foster father, Hans Hubermann, is a kind and humorous man who teaches Liesel how to read and write, loves to smoke and plays the accordion. He works as a painter and has numerous conflicts with the Nazi Party. Liesel's foster mother, Rosa Hubermann, comes off as being foul-mouthed and harsh but still is a very loving woman. She is a laundress for the wealthier people of town, but soon loses almost all of her business as the war continues. Liesel soon meets Rudy Steiner, a boy her age in the neighborhood, who quickly becomes her best friend. Rudy and Liesel get into a lot of trouble between stealing fruits and vegetables from farms, Rudy resisting Hitler Youth, many fights, and Rudy helping her steal books. Max Vandenberg soon comes into the story as well. He is a German Jew who had been hiding with a friend but came to Molching to hide in the Hubermann's basement, as Hans was a friend of Max's father. Max and Liesel bond through their nightmares and the books and words that mean so much to them both. Max creates a few books for Liesel and inspires her to write a book about herself, which later saves her life. Ilsa Hermann, the quiet and mysterious mayor's wife, befriends Liesel, having witnessed the girl saving a book from a Nazi bonfire, and allows Liesel to read in her library. All of these characters are linked to books and the effect they have on people. Liesel reads to her neighbors while they hide in their communal bomb shelter during air raids to calm them down and make them forget what is going on around them. "The Book Thief" communicates how horrible yet amazing humanity and life can be through the eyes of Death.

Characters edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “A last note from your narrator: I am haunted by humans.”
    Death
  • “Here is a small fact: You are going to die.”
    Death
  • “Her nerves licked her palms.”
    Death
  • “So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”
    Death
  • “I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They're running at me.”
    Death
  • “'When death captures me,' the boy vowed, 'he will feel my fist on his face.' Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes. I like that a lot.”
    Death
  • “By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.”
    Death
  • “I do not carry a sickle or a scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold. And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.”
    Death
  • “It kills me sometimes, how people die.”
    Death
  • “For some reason, dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. Perhaps it's so they can die being right.”
    Death
  • “Humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”
    Death
  • “The bombs were coming - and so was I.”
    Death
  • “Those images were the world, and it stewed in her as she sat with the lovely books and their manicured titles. It brewed in her as she eyed the pages full to the brims of their bellies with paragraphs and words.”
    Death
  • “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope that I have made them right.”
    Liesel
  • “That makes two weeks. Two weeks to change the world, and fourteen days to ruin it.”
    Death (?)
  • “Her wrinkles were like slander. Her voice was akin to a beating with a stick.”
  • “It amazes me, what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing, searching, finding.”
    Death
  • “It makes me understand that the best standover man I've ever known is not a man at all...”
    Max Vandenburg
  • “There were stars," he said. "They burned my eyes.”
    Max Vandenberg
  • “It's just a small story really, about, among other things: A girl, Some words, An accordionist, Some fanatical Germans, A Jewish fist fighter, And quite a lot of thievery...”
    Death
  • “There would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.”
  • “Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”
    Death
  • “When they come and ask for one of your children, … You’re supposed to say yes.”
    Barbara Steiner
  • “Silence was not quiet or calm, and it was not peace.”
    Death
  • “So many humans, so many colors.”
    Death
  • “The only thing worse than a boy that hates you, is a boy that loves you.”
  • “The dark, the light. What’s the difference? Nightmares had reinforced themselves in each.”
  • “The crowd was itself. There was no swaying it, squeezing though it, or reasoning with it. You breathed with it and you sang its songs. You waited for its fire.”
  • “From a Himmel Street window, the stars set fire to my eyes.”
    Max
  • “People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings 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 darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.”
    Death
  • “He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.”
    Death
  • “They are frightened, no question, but they were not afraid of me. It was a fear of messing up and having to face themselves again, and facing the world, and the likes of you.”
    Death
  • “The ones who rise up and say,"I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come."”
    Death
  • “Then again, who am I kidding? I'm in most places at least once , and in 1943, I was just about everywhere.”
    Death
  • “Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
    Death
  • “Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. On her birthday it was she who gave a gift to me.”
    Max Vandenburg
  • “Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.”
    Death
  • “One thing I’ve noticed about the Germans. They seem very fond of pigs.”
    Liesel Meminger
  • “One opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.”
    Death
  • “No-one’s urine smells as good as your own.”
    Mr. Vandenberg
  • “Wanting more is our fundamental right as Germans.”
    Viktor Chemmel
  • “Its also worthy of mention that every pattern has at least one small bias, and one day it will tip itself over, or fall from one page to another.”
    Death
  • “Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German.”
    Death
  • “Every second word was either saumensch or saukerl or arschloch. For people who aren’t familiar with these words, I should explain. Sau, of course, refers to pigs. In the case of Saumensch, it serves to castigate, berate or plain humiliate a female. Sukerl is for a male. Arschloch can be translated directly into arsehole.”
    Death
  • “Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.”
    Dictionary
  • “I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.”
    Death
  • “Not only did Max have less than a chance of survival than everyone else, but would die completely alone.”
    Death
  • “When she came to write her story, she would wonder exactly when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.”
    Death
Show all 48 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • Himmel Street: Liesel's home, located in Molching. Himmel literally translates to "Heaven."
  • Molching: The small town, outside Munich, in which most of the story takes place.
  • Nazi Germany: The country in which the book takes place. The Holocaust is going on at this point in time and Hitler has taken over.
  • Munich Street: The street where the mayor and his wife reside.
  • Dachau: The concentration camp where the Jews are marched through the streets of Molching on their way to.
  • Russia: Eastern country that Germany was at war with.
  • Stuttgart: The place where Hans Hubermann fought the Russians in Germany's war.
  • Stalingrad: Russian city where Germans fought in the war.
  • Cologne: The city Arthur Berg had moved to, was seen by Death, holding his sister

Organizations edit see section history

  • NSDAP, Nazi Party: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP, the German Nazi Party. A group led by Adolf Hitler whose primary goal was to create 'racial purity' among the German people through persecution of the Jews, Slavs, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, and disabled, among others. The Nazis constant attempts to expand the German empire were key in the initiation of World War II. The party's murder of millions of Jews and other people from targeted backgrounds has become known as the Holocaust.
  • Hitler Youth: A group started by Hitler in his campaigns, containing children of all ages. Once he took power, Hitler deemed it mandatory for all Aryan German youth to attend. It was basically preparation for the military.
  • Bund Deutscher Mädel: Literally translates to "Band of German Girls." Liesel is forced to join this organization, which is a part of Hitler Youth.
  • LSE: Luftwaffe Sondereinheit – Air Raid Special Unit; unit to which Hans Huberman was assigned when he was drafted into the German Army. Nicknamed by the men in the unit ""Leichensammler Einheit" or "Dead Body Collectors."

First Sentence edit see section history

First the colors.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Prologue: A Mountain Range of Rubble
--Death and Chocolate
--Beside the Railway Line
--The Eclipse
--The Flag
Part One: The Grave Digger's Handbook
--Arrival on Himmel Street
--Growing Up a Saumensch
--The Woman with the Iron Fist
--The Kiss (A Childhood Decision Maker)
--The Jesse owens Incident
--The Other Side of Sandpaper
--The Smell of Friendship
--The Heavyweight Champion of the School-yard
Part Two: The Shoulder Shrug
--A Girl Made of Darkness
--The Joy of Cigarettes
--The Town Walker
--Dead Letters
--Hitler's Birthday, 1940
--100 Percent Pure German Sweat
--The Gates of Thievery
--Book of Fire
Part Three: Mein Kampf
--The Way Home
--The Mayor's Library
--Enter the Struggler
--The Attributes of Summer
--The Aryan Shopkeeper
--The Struggler, Continued
--Tricksters
--The Struggler, Concluded
Part Four: The Standover Man
--The Accordionist (The Secret Life of Hans Huberman)
--A Good Girl
--A Short History of the Jewish Fist Fighter
--The Wrath of Rosa
--Liesel's Lecture
--The Sleeper
--The Swapping of Nightmares
--Pages from the Basement
Part Five: The Whistler
--The Floating Book (Part I)
--The Gamblers (A Seven-Sided Die)
--Rudy's Youth
--The Losers
--Sketches
--The Whistler and the Shoes
--Three Acts of Stupidity by Rudy Steiner
--The Floating Book (Part II)
Part Six: The Dream Carrier
--Death's Diary: 1942
--The Snowman
--Thirteen Presents
--Fresh Air, an Old Nightmare, and What to do with a Jewish Corpse
--Death's Diary: Cologne
--The Visitor
--The Schmunzeler
--Death's Diary: The Parisians
Part Seven: The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus
--Champagne and Accordions
--The Trilogy
--The Sound of Sirens
--The Sky Stealer
--Frau Holtzapfel's Offer
--The Long Walk to Dachau
--Peace
--The Idiot and the Coat Men
Part Eight: The Word Shaker
--Dominoes and Darkness
--The Thought of Rudy Naked
--Punishment
--The Promise Keeper's Wife
--The Collector
--The Bread Eaters
--The Hidden Sketchbook
--The Anarchist's Suit Collection
Part Nine: The Last Human Stranger
--The Next Temptation
--The Cardplayer
--The Snows of Stalingrad
--The Ageless Brother
--The Accident
--The Bitter Taste of Questions
--One Toolbox, One Bleeder, One Bear
--Homecoming
Part Ten: The Book Thief
--The End of the World (Part I)
--The Ninety-Eigth Day
--The War Maker
--Way of the Words
--Confessions
--Ilsa Hermann's Little Black Book
--The Rib-Cage Planes
--The End of the World (Part II)
Epilogue: The Last Color
--Death and Liesel
--Wood in the Afternoon
--Max
--The Handover Man

Glossary edit see section history

  • Pfennig: A copper-coated iron coin used in Germany.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • The value of literature and words: Liesel learns the value of having a voice and knowing how to read. She also realizes that words are what hold the country under the power of Hitler and the Nazi party. Hans teaches her to read; the mayor's wife allows her into the library; and Max gives her two books he wrote himself. Though it is also the source of her strife, literature is Liesel's escape from her bleak life.Liesel learns that words cause destruction and the peace in this world. When Liesel's foster mother gives her Max's second book this theme is greatly noticed.
  • The duality of humanity: Humanity is described as being both brutal and beautiful. Brutality is shown primarily through the horrors of war and the treatment of Jews; however, these examples are often counteracted by the kind actions of the Hubermanns, Liesel, Rudy, and other sympathetic characters in the story.
  • Guilt: Many characters have to deal with guilt. When Max stays with the Hubermanns, he constantly asks for forgiveness for putting them in danger. Hans and Rosa are feeling guilty about hiding Max because they are worried if they did the right thing. Liesel is guilty about stealing the books because she thinks she is going to get caught and her family will get taken away.
  • Accordion: The accordion is a symbol of both life and Papa (Hans Hubermann) for Liesel. "In the kitchen on those mornings, Papa made the accordion live. I guess it makes sense if you think about it. How do you check if something's alive? You check for breathing."
  • The Gravedigger's Handbook: The first book stolen by Liesel. This book was stolen at the cemetery, the day her brother was buried. To her, it's a reminder of the last time she saw her brother and the last time she saw her mother. An ironic symbol. This book, which is about death and graves, is the first thing that really brings Liesel to life. Starting with this book, Hans teaches her how to read, which encourages her to experience life and discover her passion for words.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 5 in The Bibliophile Club -Selected Reads of 2009. (community list)
This is book 14 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 49 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in 100 Fantabulous Book Challenge. (community list)
This book is in KCPL Discussion Kit (Aug2010). (community list)
This is book 60 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 56 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 200907 of 31 in The Bibliophile Club - Monthly Selected Reads. (community list)
This book is in World Book Night 2012. (authoritative list)
This is book 45 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. (authoritative list)
This is book 12 of 121 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2012). (authoritative list)
This is book 92 of 30 in Top selling 100 books 1998-2010 (Guardian). (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Markus Zusak (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Pirkko Biström (Translator) - Translated the original English text into Finnish.

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Picador
Country: Australia
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0375831002
Page Count: 560

Awards edit see section history

Show all 12 awards

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PZ7.Z837 Boo
  • Dewey: 820

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

There is quite a bit of language in this book that is unsuitable for young children. There is frequent cursing in German, and less frequent (though still common) cursing in English. And exceedingly sad. Some adult themes and it may be difficult for a young person to grasp that the narrator is a personification of death itself.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • In My Hands
  • Milkweed
  • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
  • Tunes for Bears to Dance to
  • Something Remains
  • The Diary of a Young Girl
  • Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex
  • World War II
  • Never Let Me Go

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Survivors
  • Eyewitness Auschwitz
  • "The Good Old Days"
  • History of the Holocaust
  • Holocaust
  • Holocaust

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Mein Kampf

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