𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: The Book Thief 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Markus Zusak (@markuszusak) 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Alfred A. Knopf (@aaknopf), a division of Penguin Random House (@penguinrandomhouse) 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ☆☆☆☆ • • • • • 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛 is a beautiful aggregation of the heart wrenching moments of an undeniably unique and intelligent Leisel Meminger's life. It starts with the introduction of narrator of the book, who's someone very interesting and equally dreaded. The book commences with prologue and take reader through ten units, each with eight chapters in each, with four being in epilogue and prologue. This journey commences from a dead corpse of Leisel's brother and her weeping, shocked mother to Himmel Street in a city named Molching. After a devastating event in Leisel's life, another major event take place. Her transfer to Hubbermans.
Markus slowly grabs our heart and fills in it, a throbbing thriller. From first meeting with Rudy Steiner and gang to every-day spitting by Frau Holtzapfel to beautiful accordion notes played by Hans Hubberman to a continuous high-pitched 𝘚𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘩 or 𝘚𝘢𝘶𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘭 or 𝘈𝘳𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘩, every little detail about the then Nazi Germany as well as the terrified yet proud Germans is intricately described over the course of the book. The best thing about The Book Thief is that nothing seems to be out of chronology, there's no rushing and no forcing in of any elements. Terror runs through your body, and a sense of chill travels down your spine as you turn a new page. The narrator poignantly breaks each elements into a series of either blissful or deathly events, that play an important role in leading us to next set of events.
A very noticeable fact about this story is that somehow, in every phase, Leisel turns out to be the hero. And Hans is the supporting friend, every hero deserves and needs. Hans is a very responsible father. Hubbermans treat Leisel as their own daughter. Hans and Rosa have a basic temperament difference, but deep down, in some way or other, Rosa let's the mother in her surface. Books, as you can suggest from the title is the most important and indispensable part of Leisel's life and the journey of book thief. It's fascinating how the opening scene is roughly a summary of the most important act that Leisel carried out throughout the book - stealing a book. Her first book was 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, which she found twenty metres away from where the grave for her brother was being dug. The next two books included 𝘍𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘨 and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, which she received as a Christmas present by his papa, Hans Hubberman, who also happened to be his first teacher. Hours spent in their basement, after the Leisel's horrific nightmares daily became one of the best memories of the journey. And the second book which she manages to steal was 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘩𝘳𝘶𝘨. This book manages to convince me that books shape a large part of Leisel's character, she starts understanding letters and combines them to form words. One of the earliest words which she spelt was 𝗞𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁, and this word doesn't turn out to be the best of all.
There are two life-changing people Inger life- one of them is wife of the mayor, 𝘐𝘭𝘴𝘢 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘯. In the library that Ilsa owns, Leisel finds her home. Book after book, she reads them down like an infinity. But soon after an event, she starts stealing the books from the library. One after one unless one day, she realizes that she has been caught. And by caught, I mean caught in a good way. Ilsa gifts Leisel 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘴. Books and Ilsa's library changes Leisel's life with an unmatchable intensity. The second of two of them is a jewish lad name 𝘔𝘢𝘹 𝘝𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘨, and is closely associated to Hans. Being the promise keeper that he is, Hans takes a risk for Max as well as his family. Over the time of Max's closeness with Hubbermans, Leisel develops a different yet close relationship with him: one that cannot be named. She read out her books during their basement sessions to Max. And somewhere, Leisel gave him hope that he had crippled beneath many layers of terror and German ideology that was building under Führer. There are two precious gifts that Leisel received from Max, which keeps her warm and satisfied for a long time. This book is also a collection of many terrific events, one of which leads to absence of Max from Hubbermans' lives. Markus has made sure that all the characters are addressed and precisely developed through the course of the journey. A back story of each character takes you from their how to why. You get to confront the reason as to why they are how they are. As the journey starts to end, it starts absorbing you at the same rate at which you absorb it. Leisel, and her love books and for Rudy, which she, unfortunately realizes just one night late and her quest to find Max and visit Ilsa's library and to tell her papa how her mama embraced his accordion when he was away and her growing indifference towards Führer leads her to pen everything down. In a diary, which our narrator eventually recieves somewhere, many years after. The Book Thief is a gem in itself, with many bonds brewing up under one state of terror. Love, hatred, horror, affection, anxiety and fascination, it seems all of this breathes all at same time. There can be nothing best about this book, because demarcating one element as better than other would be a disrespect to the efforts of Zusak's hard-work. A complementary token of gratitude for Trudy White's marvelous illustrations. If you happen to buy this 10th Anniversary Edition of the book, you'll have an opportunity of experiencing the blend of thought processes and ideas cycling up in Markus's mind. I, personally would recommend you to read this book at least once. This book taught me, how all of this started from words. Words is what lead to end. You'll know it too. Emotionally engaging read like this deserves entire lifetime.
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𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒃𝒚: 𝑹𝒂𝒌𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒂
𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎: @𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒛𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔._