Product Description

The story of a young German girl who steals books, of her family and the Jewish boxer hidden in their basement as they struggle to survive in Nazi Germany when the bombs begin to fall.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73826 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-23
• Binding: Hardcover
• 592 pages

The Guardian
Unsettling, thought-provoking, life-affirming, triumphant and
tragic, this is a novel of breath-taking scope, masterfully told...A
wonderful page-turner.

Lisa Hilton, Sunday Telegraph
Extraordinary, resonant and relevant, beautiful and angry.

Marianne Brace, Independent on Sunday
A moving work which will make many eyes brim.

Customer Reviews

Miss it - Miss out!
I'm a complete book worm and this book has gone straight into my top 5 all time best books!

Totally absorbing. Fantastically written.
Sad, happy, poignant,life affirming (even though the narrator is death!)
The characters get into your soul and it will stay with you for a long time after you've read it. I finished it a few days ago and have recommended it to everyone and now, I want to go back and read it all over again!

It's a cliche but if you only read one book this year, make sure it's this one!
Couldn't praise or recommend it more!

Haunted by humans - and by this wonderful book
I approached this book with some apprehension. The cover illustration on my copy seemed almost twee and the selected review quote - `When Death tells a story, you really have to listen' - contrived and gimmicky. The first few pages did little to relieve my reservations either. Death, the narrator, has a glib style, using colloquialisms and jokey asides, again worrying me that a topic as serious and solemn as life in Nazi Germany and the plight of the Jews during the War was to be treated in such a manner.

If any other readers find themselves approaching this book in a similar frame of mind, my advice is `Do please read on!' After the brief and unusual scene setting by Death, the narrative turns to a more straightforward but compelling account of the life of Liesel Meminger. At the start of the book, in the winter of 1939, she is nine years old and being taken south with her brother by their mother to a small town near Munich. Here Death intervenes again, to my irritation at the time, to tell us `We know now, of course, that the boy didn't make it'.

Liesel is left with foster parents, the wonderfully strong and gentle Hans Huberman and Rosa his stern, but loving and principled wife. Many sections in this book are devoted to everyday life in this household and paint a picture of tenderness amongst all the privations and fear, especially as Liesel is taught by Hans to read using a book she has `acquired' at her brother's graveside. These moving scenes are intensified and compounded with danger and suspense when the family shelter a Jewish man in their cellar for many months.

Life outside the house is also painted in vivid detail. The hungry wanderings of Liesel and her friends, the interminable football games, the cruelty of bullies and the strength of enduring friendships over years, all provide emotional hooks for a reader. Liesel's membership of the Hitler Youth was, in true adolescent fashion, `something to do', a social activity, with the hateful ideology failing to register. There is comedy here too; Liesel reports that, when joining the Hitler Youth, the first thing they do is to `check that your Heil Hitlering is working properly'.

A major theme within the book is the power of the written and spoken word. Liesel acquires her second book from under the noses of the Nazis as they ignite one of their trademark town square conflagrations. As she hurries home with her smouldering bounty hidden beneath her clothes, the reader can feel the heat and pain, whilst also sharing in the defiance and sense of triumph.

The horrors of Nazism and the war are ever present and come to the fore in certain dramatic sections. But for me, this book is as much about the finest qualities - love, heroism, compassion, sacrifice - to be found in people. I had started the book, which extends to almost six hundred pages, wondering whether such a length was absolutely necessary. By the end, the deeply, deeply moving end, I did not want these characters to leave me. I had come to know them, even, seemingly, Death, so well.

Death, who in the final sentences says, no jokes and gimmicks to be heard now, `... I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race'. Death, who concludes the novel with the words `... I am haunted by humans'.

This book has haunted me since reading it, but as much with its depths of warmth and hope as the horrors amongst which these wonders can flower. A wonderful read.

This is definately one worth stealing
I read this book a few months ago and it still has me thinking of how peoples lives were changed (even now) beyond recognition and belief by one mans' hatred. It is a book full to the brim with beauty,love,innocence,bravery,hatred,brutality,ignorance,indifference and tragedy. Truly a reflection of humanity at its best and worst. I loved every minute of it, so beautifully written even death seemed alive. I recommend this to everyone who loves stories whether based on truth or fairy tale, I will read it again and again its that kind of book.....