Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief is a historical fiction set in the backdrop of World War 2 in Nazi Germany and has an unusual narrator- Death. Death opens the story by telling us that even considering his job, he cannot understand the innumerable deaths wielded by this war and that he needs a distraction from the survivors. ‘I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling amongst the jigsaw puzzles of realisation, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs” and then he goes on to tell us the tale of one such survivor- a little girl named Liesel also known as the book thief. Death, the narrator, almost takes on a human quality as he goes through many emotions while relating this story.
Liesel, who was given up by her mother due to desperate circumstances, goes to live with foster parents in Molching, a little town in Germany. Among everything else, this is the tale of a little girl who begins to gain intimate knowledge of the power of words- Its ability to feed the inquisitive mind, heal the wounded, calm the turmoiled and wield wars. “The book thief only saw the mechanics of the words- Their bodies stranded on the paper, beaten down for her to walk on”. We read about Jewish lives being torn apart, of compassionate and brave Germans who stood up against the Nazis by protecting Jews and the price they paid for doing so.
History textbooks in School give us clinical knowledge about wars- the dates, why the battles were fought, who fought whom and what was the outcome. Books like this evoke emotions of the time- reminding us that countless innocent people were caught in the crossfire, including young children who were orphaned during the war, trying to make sense of the senseless, all the while being uprooted and left to the mercy of strangers. We are also reminded of the brave few who stood up against evil forces when it would have been easier and safer for them to join the submissive masses led by tyrants.
Even though this is a heart-wrenching book to read, it is an important one. You cannot help but draw parallels between this story and all the wars being waged by humans today as we stubbornly refuse to learn from the past.
-Anju