"For some reason dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. Perhaps it's so they can die being right."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak breaks the mold of the often told Holocaust story. It is actually a young adult fiction but you would never know that by how fast and how hard these pages take you in. It is a sincere, emotional look at WWII through the eyes of a German orphan named Liesel. She is a head strong child who finds herself on Himmel street near Munich at a time when nothing was certain and the world was changing.

When a years old promise made by Liesel's father comes knocking at the front door, the lives of everyone at 33 Himmel street takes a dramatic and potentially dangerous turn. Liesel became the book thief by chance but the habit may just have saved her own life and the lives of those around her.

The Holocaust is arguably the most corrosive and disgusting stain on human history to have ever occured. The story has been recorded in every way shape and form but something about this novel brings it new life. It is an honest look at not so much the atrocities themselves but the everyday changes that happened during that time. With the lead character being a German citizen you see the time period in a different light from people who were just as powerless as the other victims.

Liesel herself is a character that many can relate to and you find yourself caring about her right away. Her relationship with her father is touching and heart felt without being predictable or cliche.  and carried the true heart of the novel.

But the overall surprise of this novel is its narrator....death. Death tells this story from beginning to end. It creates an amazing demention to the entire novel.

This book is a light read but is a fresh and worthwhile look at a familiar subject. It will stay with you long after you turn the last page.



"The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."