Markus Zusak
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.
I borrowed this from a Little Free Library and sat it on my To Be Read shelf for quite some time. I picked it up and started reading about two-thirds of the way into December 2024. The next day, I had picked up SweetCheeks from school and was driving her to our house for a sleepover when she began talking about the book she had just started reading and that its narrator was Death. I gasped and said, "The Book Thief?" We had both started reading this book on the same day! And it really is an engrossing work. After getting through the first chapter with Death's weird depiction of emotions and people as different colors, the story itself is rich and richly told. It spent some time on the New York Times bestseller list, and I'm not surprised. A very satisfying read.
First Line: First the colors.
Page 56 / Line 5: It was 1936.
A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: The words landed on the table and positioned themselves in the middle.
Last Line: I am haunted by humans.
