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Description edit
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
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
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 are being... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Death: The narrator of the story. Death is sympathetic to humans and dislikes all of the despair and destruction that results from their haterd and war. He comments on the thoughts, morals, and actions of humanity throughout the story while keeping an eye on Liesel.
- Liesel Meminger: The protagonist, a young girl who innately understands both the power of love and the power of words. Liesel is brought to the Hubermans' home for protection becasue her mother was persecuted as a communist.
- Hans Hubermann: Liesel's foster father, who works as a painter and plays the accordion. Hans opposes the Nazi tyrrany. He promised his friend, Erik Vandenburg, that he would help his family in any way he could, leading to the sheltering of Erik's son, Max in Hans' basement.
- Rosa Hubermann: Liesel's foster mother. She has a quick temper, rules the household with an iron fist; however, her strength and love play critical roles in the survival of her family and the sheltered Max during the war.
- Max Vandenberg: A young Jewish fistfighter.
- Rudy Steiner: Liesel's neighbor and best friend. He is eight months older than Liesel and is described as having bony legs, sharp teeth, blue eyes, and lemon-colored hair. As part of a household with six children, Rudy is permanently hungry. He is known throughout the neighborhood due to the "Jesse Owens incident" in which he painted himself with charcoal one night and ran one hundred meters at the local sporting field. He is academically and athletically gifted, and gets into trouble at the Hitler Youth due to his smart mouth, rebellious nature. Rudy becomes Liesel's best friend, often accompanying her on her adventures and talking her through her problems. He also teases her, regularly (though always with love) asking her for a kiss mostly after he helps her accomplish something - for instance when one of Liesel's books (and most prized possession) is thrown into a river, he, being Rudy, rescues it.
- Arthur Berg: A German teen who is the first leader of Liesel and Rudy's food-stealing group; he protects them and shares stolen food with them.
- Franz Deutscher: Rudy's Hitler Youth vindictive group leader.
- Barbara Steiner: Rudy's mother who raises six kids. She lives on Himmel Street.
- Michael Holtzapfel: One of Frau Holtzapfel's sons. Michael returns from fighting in Russia toward the end of the novel.
- Frau Diller: A staunch Nazi supporter who owns a shop on Himmel Street. She won't let customers buy anything from her shop without a "Heil Hitler" first.
- Erik Vandenburg: An old friend of Hans Hubermann from WWI, and Max's father. Erik taught Hans to play the accordion.
- Viktor Chemmel: A German teen who assumes the leadership of the band of thieves after Arthur Berg leaves. Unlike Berg, Chemmel is a tyrannical leader.
- Reinhold Zucker: A young and bitter member of the LSE.
- Tommy Müller: A loyal friend of Rudy Steiner and Liesel. His hearing problems lead to difficulties with the Nazi Youth organization.
- Alex Steiner: Rudy's father, a tailor and WWI veteran who pays the consequences of protecting his son being recruited by the Nazis at 14 years of age.
- Frau Holtzapfel: A neighbor of the Hubermanns. Due to a long-standing feud between her and Rosa Hubermann, she spits on the Hubermanns' door every time she passes. Despite her outward spitefulness, she is revealed to harbor a compassionate heart.
- Ilsa Hermann: The wife of the mayor of Molching. The Hermann's son Johannes was killed in Russia, and Ilsa is haunted by his memories. Rosa does the Hermanns' washing and ironing for a time until the bad economy forces the Hermanns to discontinue the service. Liesel's continued relationship with Ilsa is pivotal in the novel.
- Pfiffikus: An old man that has a dirtier mouth than Rosa Hubermann. Nobody knows his real name, but because he is often whistling, he was nicknamed Pfiffikus, or "the whistler" by the children of Molching.
Quotes edit
-
“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 -
“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.”
-
““When they come and ask for one of your children,” … You’re supposed to say yes.””
Barbra Steiner -
“Silence was not quiet or calm, and it was not peace.”
-
“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.”
-
“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness”
Death -
“He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.”
-
“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.”
Setting & Locations edit
- 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
- 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
First the colors.
Table of Contents edit
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
Themes & Symbolism edit
- 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: 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
This is book 1 of 5 in The Bibliophile Club -Selected Reads of 2009. (community list)
This is book 24 of 94 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Bible (New International Version), and followed by Memoirs of a Geisha.
This is book 49 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
Preceded by Tuesdays With Morrie, and followed by Little Women.
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)
Preceded by Holes, and followed by The Memory Keeper's Daughter.
This is book 56 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
Preceded by Gone With the Wind, and followed by The Lightning Thief.
This is book 200907 of 27 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)
Preceded by The Secret Life of Bees, and followed by The Diary of a Young Girl.
This book is in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. (authoritative list)
This is book 92 of 26 in Top selling 100 books 1998-2010 (Guardian). (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Undomestic Goddess, and followed by I Know You Got Soul.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Markus Zusak (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Pirkko Biström (Translator) - Translated the original English text into Finnish.
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Picador
Country: Australia
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0375831002
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Picador
Country: Australia
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0375831002
Page Count: 560
Awards edit
- Daniel Elliott Peace Award (2006)
- Commonwealth Writers Prize (2006: Best Book)
- National Jewish Book Awards (2006: Children's and Young Adult Literature)
- Michael L. Printz Award (Finalist, 2007: Young Adult Literature, Honor Book)
- Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (2007)
- Garden State Teen Book Award (2009, #1)
- Quill Award (Finalist)
- Blue Ribbon Book
- Association of Jewish Libraries Teen Book Award
- Teen Read Awards (Finalist, 2010: Best All-Time Fave)
- Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Master List (2009)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PZ7.Z837 Boo
- Dewey: 820
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- United States holocause Memorial Museum: The official site of the museum.
- Jewish Virrtual Library: Provides a comprehensive Jewish encyclopedia, with articles about the burning of books by the Nazis and other related topics.
- Markus Zusak's Official Website: This is the author's official website. Here you can find information about the author, his press, his other books, and discussions about the books.
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