English Review - The Book Thief.

I have read "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I really enjoyed this book and I honestly found it difficult to put the book down. In my opinion it was a fantastic read.
The way Zusak wrote the book kept me interested from the very start and made me want to keep reading to find out what happens next. Zusak has a very interesting style of writing. The story of the Book Thief is told by Death. Death visits the book thief three times. The book Thief, a young girl called Liesel Meminger living in Nazi Germany has a difficult life and death finds an interest in her and follows her throughout it.  
Zusak also tells a big part of the story before it actually happens by telling you a brief part of the future. This I found, was a clever way of keeping interest in the novel as I found that I immediately wanted to know the full details and how this particular event happened and so kept reading on in order to find out.
The novel is presented in chapters and parts. It also has small sections or notes further explaining a word or what is happening in the novel. It is written in an almost poetic style.
Zusak has a very descriptive and poetic style of writing.


Zusak has a great style of describing characters and I instantly fell in love with them. Liesel is the main character in the story and she is described as "a young German girl with blonde hair and dangerous eyes." She is poor and is illiterate. We first meet her on the train with her younger brother and her mother on the way to her new foster parents home. Sadly her brother passes away on the train and when he is buried, the gravedigger drops his handbook. It is here that Liesel steals her first book. Liesel arrives at the Hubermanns, her new foster parents home and grudgingly enters leaving her mother. Liesel soon fits in with the family. 
Liesel is taunted by the death of her brother and she begins to have regular  nightmares but Hans Hubermann proves to be a calming, loving foster father and with his help she learns to read and write. Hans becomes her papa and Liesel trusts and loves him the most and by reading with her and playing the accordion to her comforts her. He is described as a "kind man with silver eyes". He is a brave, unbiased man who knows wrong from right and always does what he believes is the right thing to do, even if it will get him into serious trouble. He is a great, positive role model to Liesel. 
Hans and Rosa Hubermann take Max Vanderburg, a twenty three year old Jewish fist fighter, into their home and hide him in the basement in order for him to survive. Liesel and Max bond over their nightmares and their friendship grows very deep.  Liesel gives Max love and friendship and he returns the favour by writing her a book called "The Standover Man".They begin to love each other in a Brotherly Sisterly way and Liesel looks up to Max.
While living on Himmel street, Liesel soon befriends her neighbour Rudy Steiner. A cheeky but innocent character with hair the colour of lemons. When Rudy is not asking Liesel for a kiss, Rudy and Liesel are spending their lives together playing football on the street or stealing from the neighbours particularly Ilsa Hermann, the mayors wife of whom owns a library of books and of which Liesel steals her books from. Slowly, Rudy and Liesel fall in love.


The theme of War emerged in the novel. The novel is set in Nazi Germany and Hitler is in full control. Discrimination and racism is everywhere and anybody who is not German, not of catholic religion or not the right race is punished. Jewish people are victimised the most by being sent to concentration camps and sometimes slaughtered there. 
Zusak outlines the dangers of not living up to Hitlers expectations by showing the difficulties of hiding a Jew from the world in your basement. He shows how difficult life was for everyone at that time, how if you were poor you were constantly hungry and how if you did not join the Nazis you were in serious trouble. He also shows the distress that families had to go through at that time. Bombs could be set off at any time and if you did not find proper shelter soon enough, your life was at a high risk. 
He showed how people lived in fear and intimidation from the Nazis and Hitler, nobody dared question them as it would immediately put their lives at risk. By the character of Hans, he showed that doing the right thing will only get you in trouble that even the honest people in Nazi Germany were victimised. 
From this Novel I learned that life was tough at this time, Racism was huge, money was short and people lived their lives in constant fear. The men had to join the Nazi Party and women had to Join the League of German Girls. People valued friends and family at this time as they brought them happiness and a sense of togetherness in that difficult time. 


Markus Zusak's outlook on Nazi Germany is pessimistic. He points out how war and Hitler has destroyed familys and brought great sorrow to the people at that time. Although he shows some brightness in Liesel's childhood, behind all of it there is great darkness. In his novel he has outlined the difficult struggle of people's lives in Nazi Germany. 


The Book Thief was a great educational novel and I would highly recommend it to young adults. It would be a great book to study but also it is a great read for your own pleasure. A story of sorrow but with a slightly positive ending, a book I will always remember.