Fiction
A Summer Steal
My friend Anne gave me The Book Thief by Markus Zusak to read late last year, and I put it at the top of my summer holiday pile. When I started it, most people I told I was reading it couldn’t believe I hadn’t already. It is just on twenty years since this book was first published, but I suspect it hasn’t lost any of its ability to draw the reader in and hold their attention. It had me, from the first page to the last. I even enjoyed reading Zusak’s Author’s Note before the story starts. I lifted some of the guidance he whispers to himself about writing: ‘Keep going. You’re a mess and you’re happy.’
These words now my own guidance on a pink sticky at the top of my computer monitor. There to encourage me when the writing gets tough.
This captivating book is narrated by Death – an interesting angle on story narration. Such a novel idea for a novel, don’t you think? Who would have thought of it but Markus Zusak. This book is also clever in the way it is written, in the layout of the chapters – with
bold typed facts and notes and forthcoming events
sign-posted between paragraphs and chapters.
Then there are the sketches and captions of a hand-written story (a story within the story), by the character Max – who writes on white painted-over pages of the text all Germans must read – Mein Kampf. The plot of The Book Thief – with its twists and turns makes for incredibly touching, highly engaging, delightfully funny, and yet sad reading. The characters Zusak creates are strong, real, unique, and so close that you can feel what they are going through, you can see what they are doing, you can almost touch them.
We come to befriend the charisma and oddity of Death, almost as if he is a living person. I felt sorry for him and the job he has to do. But he (I note I am giving him male gender, though not sure why except that I suspect it’s the way Zusak presents this character to me) has compassion, wit, and humour. He doesn’t take his job lightly either. Death has heart. He feels awful for all the senseless killings and the souls he must retrieve. I love the way he speaks to me as the reader. Drawing me further into the story and making me care about him.
‘Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their French words. I watched their love-visions and freed them from their fear.’ (p.373)
Such are the feelings of Death as he grapples with the end of life.
Zusak also gives us an insight into the second world war and life in Germany for those who were brainwashed by Hitler and for those who cared about their fellow human beings. We see the risks and the consequence of resistance. We see poverty and hunger. We want the war to end.
But mostly this book is about friendship and love and the developing relationship between Liesel and her neighbour and best friend Rudy. We witness the bond as it grows between them. We see their defence against the harsh reality of living through war by stealing, and the games they play masking their true feelings for each other. We follow the respect Rudy has for the boundaries Liesel sets about not kissing him. We feel the love between Liesel and her new kind Papa Hans Huberman and the gruff Mama Rosa. We are taken into the simple beauty of the connection that develops between Liesel and Max – the Jew they keep in the basement. We see the strength of family and community and the frailty of life, held up by the might of the human spirit.
This book has it all. So, for those of you who still have time for a holiday read and haven’t laid eyes on this book before – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a must read.
