The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
545 Rating(s)
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The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Narrator: Allan Corduner

Unabridged: 13 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/26/2006


Synopsis

DON’T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK’S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF.
 
The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.
 
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. 

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
 
“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times
 
“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today

About The Author

Markus Zusak is the author of I Am the Messenger, winner of the Children's Book Council Book of the Year in Australia, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and Getting the Girl. The author lives in Sydney, Australia.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Debby on 2007-08-25 14:36:50

This book was on my bookclub reading list. At first, I wasn't sure what to think of 'Death' being the story teller. It did not take long to become totally engrossed in the story. The narrator did such an excellent job with all the different character's voices, that I felt I was 'in' the story. This is a poignant story, but has many moments where I found myself laughing. The relationship between Liselle and Rudy Steiner was so well told, that I felt a connection to them. I absolutely loved this story, and I highly recommend this book to anyone. I was sorry that the story ended. Bravo!

AudiobooksNow review by Diane on 2007-08-27 16:34:36

Excellent twist on a familiar subject matter. Highly recommended.

Goodreads review by Kat Kennedy on January 14, 2014

Just to clarify: Yes, I did cry. I've read a lot of positive and negative reviews for this book. I can see why people wouldn't like it - I really can. Perhaps because I took a lot out of it personally, I found I enjoyed it a lot. Quick test to see if you'll like this book: 1. Did you like Anne of Green......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on December 04, 2013

This is a book to treasure, a new classic. I absolutely loved it. Set in Germany in the years 1939-1943, The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, narrated by Death who has in his possession the book she wrote about these years. So, in a way, they are both book thieves. Liesel steals randomly at firs......more

Goodreads review by Will on February 07, 2024

The Book Thief was published as Young Adult novel. Don’t you believe it. This is a wonderful novel, appropriate for adults of young, middle and advanced years. My wife was shedding copious tears as she finished reading the book, and insisted that I read it immediately. How could I not? I was prepare......more

Goodreads review by Miranda on May 16, 2021

This one is a long book. But was it worth all that paper? Click the link for my video review of the big bois in my life.The Written Review:I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.Liesel, an orphaned girl, is sent to live with a foster family right beforethe Na......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on September 15, 2007

I put off reading this book for the library book club. Here are my three reasons for doing so: 1) It's a Young Adult Book. I am an Adult. It can't be that good if it's written for young people. 2) It's about the Holocaust, and I think we've all heard enough about that. The author will probably even fo......more


Quotes

“Brilliant and hugely ambitious…Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers…Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it’s a great young-adult novel…It’s the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope…The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults.” -New York Times

"The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic." -USA Today

"Zusak doesn’t sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five: with grim, darkly consoling humor.” -Time Magazine

"Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important." -Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject..." -Publisher's Weekly, Starred 

"One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years." -The Wall Street Journal

"Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited." -The Horn Book Magazine, Starred

"An extraordinary narrative." -SLJ, Starred


Awards

  • Printz Honors