The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one of my favourite reads of all time. This is a book that gave me a history lesson in the most soul-crushing way possible. It is set in Nazi Germany in the years 1939-1943. Narrated by Death (personified, yes), it is the story of a young German girl, Liesel Meminger, who is sent to live with a foster family. Liesel is given the title 'Book Thief' by Death himself who takes a peculiar interest in this girl when he first meets her when her brother dies and she so happens to steal her first ever book, 'The Gravedigger's Handbook' which was left in the snow by her brother's grave. She steals more books as she grows older by more methodical means. At last Death pockets Liesel's notebook after she leaves it in her grief, amongst all the chaos that was made out of the place she used to call home because of the atrocities of war. 

It is a book that highlights the plight of the Jews during that period but also of the people who did not want to be against any race or man but were forced into it. It demonstrates the cruelty of war in the simplest way possible- through the life of a little German girl who is adopted by German parents but they are "Jew-loving" people or rather people with basic human empathy and thus they hide a Jewish man amongst them who grows to be Liesel's best friend. One of my favourite aspects of this book is how it portrays that in the end, all of us are simply humans no matter our differences which we claim to be superior or inferior. And in the end, there will come a time when Death will come right in and swoop us away without even knocking on our front door. There's a "note-worthy note" by Death in this book that underscores the vanity of war.

"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."

One other striking aspect of this book that made me sit and think for a while was how the narrator claims that it was not the weapons or the military that helped Hitler take over a country and start a war- it was words. Some might say this is stupid. But I actually agree with the narrator. When the German people were in a state of shame and affliction, Hitler walked right in and told them how to think. He told those people the story of a future that would pull them right out of their plight- a future of glory and prosperity where their enemies have fallen and they are redeemed and happy. He told this story and he told it well enough that he was able to make a whole country fall in line with his own thoughts and beliefs. He did not become the best-known dictator in the world by starting off with a bullet. He became so because he knew how to twist lies into truths and instil hatred in the mind of the common man with his words.

This book is thus a stark reminder of the power of words. It is a story that illuminates the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. It highlights the themes of love, friendship, loss and grief throughout the course of it, touching at each and every single reader's heart, how Death himself is more humane and empathetic than mankind.