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List Price: £7.99Amazon.co.uk's Price: £3.59 You Save: £4.40 (55%)as of 03/09/2010 22:04 BST
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780552773898
Edition: Reprint
ISBN: 0552773891
Label: Black Swan
Manufacturer: Black Swan
Number Of Pages: 560
Publication Date: January 01, 2008
Publisher: Black Swan
Studio: Black Swan
Features:- New
- Mint Condition
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This book is a story of: a girl; an accordionist; some fanatical Germans; a Jewish fist fighter; and quite a lot of thievery.
Amazon.co.uk Review:
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies. The author is a prize-winning writer of children's books, and this, his first novel for adults, proved to be a triumphant success. The book is extraordinary on many levels: moving, yet restrained, angry yet balanced -- and written with the kind of elegance found all too rarely in fiction these days. The book's narrator is nothing less than Death itself, regaling us with a remarkable tale of book burnings, treachery and theft. The book never forgets the primary purpose of compelling the reader's attention, yet which nevertheless is able to impart a cogent message about the importance of words, particularly in those societies which regard the word as dangerous (the book is set during the Nazi regime, but this message is all too relevant in many places in the world today).
Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.
Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country. --Barry Forshaw
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Beautiful, stunning, original.
Moving, emotional, tense.
I wonder why it has taken me so long to read this book - please don't listen to anyone who says it's depressing - it's not. It's quite simply amazing.
Rating: -
I have never written a review before and although there are many I can't resist adding to them.
This book is truly fabulous. I started it one night and finished it the next. Usually I put finished books on the shelf even if I have enjoyed them but never have I woken up the next day and read the last few pages again. The last 2 pages in particular made me bawl like a baby again and again.
This book will stay with me for a long time and I am glad of that.
Rating: -
This is a slow burner,beautifully written and observed, at the same time shocking. Its one of the best books i have ever read.
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Once into this book I could not put it down. Depressing at times due to the circumstances of a people under a repressive and crazy regime there are also wonderful moments too that inspire you.
I did wonder if the writer had some family experience that gave him the ideas and background into this era as he looks so young. The detail of the lives of the neighbours in this poor road in Germany are so real I felt it must have been written by someone with close family ties to this time and ... Read More
Rating:  -
This is the first book I have chosen to read for pleasure since I began my English degree four years ago. So it was a big decision - what would the book be? I resisted the urge to read four year's worth of back issues of Heat magazine and settled down to read The Book Thief instead.
I heard about The Book Thief from friends at university - quite how they had time to read their own choice of fiction and I didn't, I'm not sure, but figured it was best not to dwell on that!
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The book thief
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