Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

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Recommended: The holocaust in the book thief

It's just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

How does one write a book about the horrors of the holocaust and still portray the German society as much of a victim as the others? Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, published in 2005, does exactly that, weaving an engrossing story in its 552-page glory and opening a window into the life of little Liesel Meminger, the small girl who is the protagonist. However, that's not it. It's just the tip of the iceberg that The Book Thief really is. What makes The Book Thief a truly different book to read is not its concept, but its narrator. He says he can be agreeable, affable and …show more content…

Principally, it is Liesel Meminger's story, which begins with the death of her younger brother, Werner, on a train while on her way to her new home in southern Germany to live with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann (pronounced ubermann). That's when the Book Thief thieves for the first time, stealing The Gravedigger's Handbook-A Twelve-Step Guide To Grave-Digging Success from the site where her brother was buried. The Gravedigger's Handbook becomes a link to her past, a sort of parting gift from her mother and brother, and a constant companion even when she starts living at the Hubermanns', who are slightly eccentric but, as Death describes them, with their hearts in the right place. Hans Hubermann, the painter, amateur accordionist and her new Papa, is so good and patient that he even manages to love his wife, Liesel's new mama, Rosa Hubermann, who washes and irons clothes for wealthier households in the town to supplement the income of the Hubermann household, and is particularly known for her colourful vocabulary, calling one and all the German slander for 'a filthy

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    It was on a train with Liesel’s mother and brother where they were travelling when death made his first appearance in the book thief’s life. He took the soul of her brother and only glanced at the girl truly, not taking real note of her as he did his job. She knew that her brother was dead at that point, but the shock wouldn’t truly take her until she snatched a book from where it had fallen near her brother’s hastily made grave. After he was buried, Liesel and her mother continued on their way, arriving at the town of Molching, where she met Hans and Rosa Hubermann. In the first few months that she had arrived, nightmares plagued her mind, haunting her with images of Werner, her brother, and his cold dead eyes. Hans is the one to comfort her, and because of this she grows to trust in him and truly view him as her father. She enjoys his company as well, for he can play the accordion and is always smiling and winking at her in a joyous way. He also begins to teach her how to read the book that she picked up on the day d...

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