The Book Thief

While on vacation, I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was a very good book. The most interesting thing about the book is the narrator. He is Death. Death is an interesting narrator for the sake of his perspective but also beacause of the way he speaks. He uses a lot of metaphors. The book is chuck full of them. It is beautiful writing. Here is one example: "Her wrinkles were like slander. Her voice was akin to a beating with a stick." An another: "It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater." The imagery is simply breathtaking. I found myself rereading passages, just because they were so beautiful. Markus Zusak is a brilliant author! I'm excited to try some of his other books as well. The story is about a young orphaned girl growing up in Nazi Germany. She loves the written word and takes to the habit of stealing books. This novel tells a powerful story of growing up, of war, love, family, tragedy, oppression, and standing up for what is right. The Book Thief has taken its place among the list of my favorites.

(If you venture to read it, you may want fair warning that there is some swearing in it...some in German, some translated into English.)