{"id":16929,"date":"2012-03-26T09:33:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T13:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=16929"},"modified":"2016-05-23T19:36:27","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T23:36:27","slug":"the-book-thief-by-markus-zusak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-book-thief-by-markus-zusak\/","title":{"rendered":"The Book Thief by Markus Zusak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/03\/Book-Thief.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-27447\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/03\/Book-Thief.jpg\" alt=\"Book Thief\" width=\"600\" height=\"932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/03\/Book-Thief.jpg 600w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/03\/Book-Thief-515x800.jpg 515w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>After two books on the horrors of North Korea, two memoirs about the Palestinian occupation,\u00a0another about a Lost Boy of Sudan, still another highlighting Hindu\/Muslim massacres in Kashmir \u2013 all\u00a0one after the other (what was I thinking??!!) \u2013\u00a0I picked up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.randomhouse.com\/features\/markuszusak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Markus Zusak<\/a>\u2019s <em>The Book Thief<\/em>, only because it came with my teenage daughter&#8217;s insistent recommendation. In spite of the <em>Thief<\/em>&#8216;s countless (major) awards and accolades\u00a0\u2013 it&#8217;s one of those rare titles with deservedly\u00a0unanimous approval \u2013 I had managed to somehow bypass its celebrated pages for six years.<\/p>\n<p>That the book is about a young girl during the Holocaust whose story is narrated by Death, gave me an initial shudder of terror, having already caused myself regular literary nightmares. But as read by Allan Corduner (who sounds uncannily like Jeremy Irons), the audible production is a transcendent experience of one of the best books I&#8217;ve encountered in years. And yes, I wholeheartedly endorse <em>both<\/em> handheld and stuck-in-the-ear formats together: if you choose only the not-to-be-missed audible route, you&#8217;ll miss the wrenching illustrations available only on the page. This is when the library comes in handy for experiencing both &#8230; how fitting as the book is so much about books, after all.<\/p>\n<p>Liesel Meminger arrives in the small town of Molching, Germany, to become the foster daughter of Hans and Rosa Hubermann who live at 33 Himmel Street [Himmel means &#8220;heaven&#8221;; 33 is also deliberate]. The year is 1939, and Liesel is just about to turn 10. All around her, the F\u00fchrer&#8217;s abominable doctrines are fueling what will be remembered as history&#8217;s worst war.<\/p>\n<p>Hans, who plays the\u00a0accordion\u00a0like no one else, whom Liesel will love &#8220;the most,&#8221; will teach her to read, which will ultimately save her life. Rosa, who hides her enormous heart under impatient curses, will demand that Liesel call her new parents Mama and Papa and will love her unconditionally into forever. Rudy, her next-door neighbor and soon-to-be best friend, will finally get his kiss too late. And Max, who comes to live in the Hubermann basement, will give her the gift of writing &#8230; and of everlasting friendship.<\/p>\n<p>In a book about the redemptive power of words, storytelling, and books, I can&#8217;t seem to find the right vocabulary to describe the utter brilliance of\u00a0<em>Thief<\/em>. Just know that Zusak&#8217;s writing is so affecting and glorious that you&#8217;ll smile, hope, mourn, laugh, weep &#8230; and thoroughly, unabashedly, savor this extraordinary treasure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2006 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After two books on the horrors of North Korea, two memoirs about the Palestinian occupation,\u00a0another about a Lost Boy of Sudan, still another highlighting Hindu\/Muslim massacres in Kashmir \u2013 all\u00a0one after the other (what was I thinking??!!) \u2013\u00a0I picked up Markus Zusak\u2019s The Book Thief,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,5,81,225,23,6,312,31],"tags":[1372,1373,6608,75,10,24,214,13,1374,39,55,44,45],"class_list":["post-16929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-absolute-favorites","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-australian","category-european","category-fiction","category-jewish","category-young-adult-readers","tag-allan-corduner","tag-book-thief","tag-bookdragon","tag-death","tag-family","tag-historical","tag-holocaust","tag-love","tag-markus-zusak","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-religious-differences","tag-siblings","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - 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