Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is truly a gem of contemporary fiction and also one of the most beautiful, touching and interesting stories I've read in a long while.
Zusak brings us a story of an orphan girl, Liesel, during World War II. Liesel has to live with a foster family and cope with things that a lot older people than her can't rally handle. What makes this book so special is that it's narrated by death. Now, it's not science fiction, it's just a book told from death's point of view. The author doesn't deeply analyse battles, combat, machinery, nor does he bring a scientifically precise depiction of the war. It's just a story about people, normal people, living in times that tend to bring either the worst or the best in people. i believe that by showing us the ordinary life, we are shown the ordinary history.
The main protagonists are Liesel and her friend Rudy. Except for them, there are Liesel's foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann; Max, the Jew they're protecting; Ilsa Hermann, the mayor's wife.
We may not like some of the characters from the beginning (I have a feeling that Zusak didn't want us to like Rosa Huberbann at first, but I did) and despite some of them having obvious inclination towards the Nazis, there are no bad characters, evil is plotted behind the scene. These people are just trying to survive and they're doing the best they can.
No matter how much I think about it, I can't tell whether or not this book has a happy ending. Liesel survives the war, and sometimes that's enough to make us happy, at least content that things aren't worse. But she's lost her entire family. Twice. She's lost Rudy. We don't know if she lost Max. I like to imagine that she didn't, that they found some way to remain close, no matter the distance between them. War tends to make connections that are difficult to tear. Death implies that Liesel married and lived a long life, it was only then that she came for her, but did she live a happy life? Maybe, I hope so. Not only for the fictional Liesel, but also for thousands of other Liesels who have survived World War II and other wars. If they can't muster happiness, I hope they're at least trying to go on. If there is anything to be learnt from The Book Thief, it's that life goes on, it has to go on, no matter what we do. It doesn't stop after a brother's death, not after a bombing, not after a friend's death. The story is narrated by death, but so are our lives.
Of course, there's a reason for the title of the book. Liesel is the book thief. Her relationship with books is a love-hate one throughout the book, but in the end I'd say that love wins. When the story begins, Liesel can't read and Hans teaches her letters. The Grave Digger's Handbook is the first book Liesel reads and owns. Its title goes perfectly with the tone of the book and also with the feeling of growing up during a war, of being a child of a war who doesn't know any better and finds death a perfectly acceptable part of everyday life. The girl is very poor and she can't afford to buy books. Even if she could I can't possibly imagine where she'd buy them. Her last resort is stealing. Even if The Book thief didn't provide us with a deep war analysis it did provide an analysis of what reading and literature mean. As a way of escapism, of saving yourself and your mental health, of the power of words, of their danger. In one moment, Liesel renounces books and words because of what they've done to Germany and the way they've seduced the country. In the end, she makes her peace both with the books and Ilsa Hermann, the woman she stole them from.
The Book thief has left me with a bitter and yet optimistic feeling and also leaves me wondering, are books really that powerful or do we just want them to be?
I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.- Liesel
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