|
 |
 |
Books... & more |
|
|
|
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.
Rating: -
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 place.
A great insight into life in Germany under the nazis and not one we often hear of. Well done to Markus Zusak.
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!
The Book Thief is a story set in WW2 Germany and chronicles the life of the `book thief,' Liesel, a young German girl, fostered by the Hubermanns, friend of Rudy, stealer of apples and lover of books. The narrator is Death ... but don't let that put you off, as this unique voice just serves to highlight the fighting spirit of Liesel and how she continues to elude `him'.
It has an almost scrapbook feel to it, interspersing narration with lists, pictures and home drawn books.
The only slight letdown is that the story meanders somewhat at the halfway point but the momentum gathered in empathy garnered towards this ordinary, unpolitical German family struggling to survive a war, means that the reader can forgive this slight lull.
Like Liesel and her family, the book is not perfect, but that is what makes it wonderful. Sometimes they do right, sometimes they do wrong and, the setting and era aside, the reader, therefore, is still very much able to relate from one flawed human to another.
The Book Thief is a celebration of words, of spirit and of friendship - what better book to read after finishing my degree at the ripe old age of 39. If you get the chance to read it, take it - you won't be disappointed.
 
The book thief
|
|
|
