The Book Thief: A Brief Review + Quotes

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Historical Fiction, 2005)

my rating - 10/5 :)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a World War II historical fiction about an 11-year-old girl, Liesel, who discovers her passion for books and words after finding a book next to her brother's grave. Adopted by a German couple, Liesel tries to understand what's happening in the world with the help of her best friend and the Jew her family is hiding in their basement.

Definitely one of my favourite books! The story is so beautifully written and extremely heartbreaking at the same time. The fact that it is narrated by Death himself, gives it a unique perspective which made me rethink about many things in life. I absolutely adored it.

I actually read this book last year during a rather weird time for me. I was feeling a bit insecure and this book made me feel safe and it kept me good company. Looking at it now, it still gives me the same warm feeling I got when I was first reading it. So that's the second reason why The Book Thief is my favourite book!

*QUOTES*

• The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy who loves you.
• I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.
• It kills me sometimes, how people die. - Death
• I am haunted by humans. - Death
• He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.
• If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter.
• His soul sat up, it met me. Those kind of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say 'I know who you are and I'm ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.' Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places. - Death
• She was saying goodbye and she didn't even know it.
• She wanted none of those days to end, and it always was with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward.
• The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this.
• Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.
• As always, one of her books was next to her.
• The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain.
• A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die. - Death
• I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.
• If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive.
• It's hard to not like a man who not only notices the colours, but speaks them.
• Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words. I watched their love visions and freed them from their fear. - Death
• Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes. - Liesel
• Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.
• She could smell the pages. She could almost taste the words as they stacked up around her.

Thank you for being here
D. 🧡