thebookthief

Judge A Book By Its Cover

Book Reviews and Synopses

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. Random House Inc. N. Y. New York. 2005.

Dark yet whimsical, The Book Thief is a horror novel that has held the attention of readers for years. One of the top books on the New York Times Bestsellers list, the praise keeps on coming. Markus Zusak also became a New York Times Bestselling Author after The Book Thief’s success, and seems as if he will dazzle readers for years to come.

In the old antique shop down Willow Street, lives a twelve-year old boy, abandoned. He lived with his grandmother until the bombings started, when she was trapped in the collapsed cellar of the shop. Most of that part of town collapsed, as flames ate through what little the bombs had left standing. The little abandoned street has no visitors, and the town two miles over attempts to ignore it’s existence. The boy’s name once was Hank, but, since his grandmother’s death, he’s started to call himself simply ‘H’ out of lack of socialization. Few things in H’s small life change, except for his love for reading.

H is willing to risk being seen to get new books, and he creeps towards the town, though he seems to fight against some unexplained, invisible force on the way there. He eventually finds his way to an old joined tea shop and bookstore at the edge of town, ran by an old woman. H finds that he is reminded by his grandmother when watching the old woman, and is almost overcome by grief. When she leaves the shop, he pulls himself out of his misery and creeps inside to look through her books. The woman returns, and he snarls like an animal, dashing out into the night with the books under his arm. She calls him back, but he flees in fear, all the while shouting at something running in front of him, “I’m sorry! I always knew you were right!”

Though H was terrified, he keeps going back into the town to watch the old woman through the back windows of the tea shop out of grief for his grandmother. The invisible force around him is stronger, and he has to struggle to be able to get into the town. He constantly argues with it, telling the entity that he can do what he wants and that it can’t stop him. Back at the old antique store, it is revealed that he is being haunted by the ghost of a young boy that died in the bombings. The ghost threatens H, saying that he must stay hidden, and that he is to stay safely at the antique shop and not interact with any other people. H fights him off, trying to get back to town, realizing that he doesn’t just want books anymore. Escaping the ghost boy, H, the book thief, sprints as fast as he can to the town, hoping to reclaim life as he once had it.

The cover of The Book Thief represents how H’s life was controlled by someone else, and how he fought to reclaim it. It is a beautiful coming-to-realization story, and an inspiration to fight off your own demons. Markus Zusak tries to give courage to those that want to control their own lives, and deal with the losses of loved ones. Young adults should read The Book Thief.

5 out of 5 stars

Contributed by L. Hansen

February 19th, 2013