About the book
Liesel Meminger is only nine years old when she is taken to live with the Hubermanns, a foster family, on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, in the late 1930s. She arrives with few possessions, but among them is The Grave Digger’s Handbook, a book that she stole from her brother’s burial place. During the years that Liesel lives with the Hubermanns, Hitler becomes more powerful, life on Himmel Street becomes more fearful, and Liesel becomes a fullfledged book thief. She rescues books from Nazi book-burnings and steals from the library of the mayor. Liesel is illiterate when she steals her fi rst book, but Hans Hubermann uses her prized books to teach her to read. This is a story of courage, friendship, love, survival, death, and grief. This is Liesel’s life on Himmel Street, told from Death’s point of view.
A Conversation with Markus Zusak
What inspired you to write about a hungry, illiterate girl who has such a desire to read that she steals books?
I think it’s just working on a book over and over again. I heard stories of cities on fi re, teenagers who were whipped for giving starving Jewish people bread on their way to concentration camps, and people huddled in bomb shelters. . . . But I also had a story about a book thief set in my hometown of Sydney. I just brought the two ideas together and realized the importance of words in Nazi Germany. I thought of Hitler destroying people with words, and now I had a girl who was stealing them back, as she read books with the young Jewish man in her basement and calmed people down in the bomb shelters. She writes her own story–and it’s a beautiful story– through the ugliness of the world that surrounds her.
How did you decide to make Death the narrator of the book?
With great difficulty! I thought, “Here’s a book set during war. Everyone says war and death are best friends.” Death is ever-present during war, so here was the perfect choice to narrate The Book Thief. At fi rst, though, Death was too mean. He was supercilious, and enjoying his work too much. He’d say extremely creepy things and delight in all the souls he was picking up . . . and the book wasn’t working. So I went to a fi rst-person narration, a simple third-person narration . . . and six months later I came back to Death–but this time, Death was to be exhausted from his eternal existence and his job. He was to be afraid of humans–because, after all, he was there to see the obliteration we’ve perpetrated on each other throughout the ages–and he would now be telling this story to prove to himself that humans are actually worth it.
Liesel has an uncanny understanding of people and an ability to befriend those who most need companionship . Who do you think is Liesel’s most unforgettable friend?
For me it’s Rudy, but a lot of people will tell me it’s Hans Hubermann, Max, the mayor’s wife, or even Rosa Hubermann. Rudy is just my favorite character. From the moment he painted himself black and became Jesse Owens, he was my favorite. Liesel kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips was probably the most devastating part of the book for me to write. . . . I was a mess. On the other hand, I’m also drawn to all of the relationships Liesel forms, even her reading with Frau Holtzapfel, and the return of her son. Even Ludwig Schmeikl–the boy she beats up on the playground and reconciles with at the book burning . . . I think the relationship with Rosa is the most unexpected, though. The moment when she sees Rosa with the accordion strapped to her (when Hans is sent to the war) is when she realizes exactly how much love her foster mother is capable of.
Your use of figurative language seems natural and effortless. Is this something that you have to work to develop, or is it innately a part of your writing style?
I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It’s probably what I love most about writing–that words can be used in a way that’s like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They’re the best moments in a day of writing–when an image appears that you didn’t know would be there when you started work in the morning. At other stages, it takes time. It took three years to write this book, and some images remained from start to finish, but others were considered and reconsidered dozens of times, if not more. Often, to keep the workday flowing, I’ll continue writing the story and then come back later to develop an image that hasn’t worked from the outset. I might even take it out completely.
This book gave us much to discuss, and discuss we did! Death, Nazi Germany, concentration camps, survival, fear, strength,---and many more topics I don't remember. Karen brought her photo albums from her trip to Germany and the work camps and concentration camps she visited. Phyllis shared a new ICCA book that is set in Nazi Germany--Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf which she suggested we might read. What a great discussion!
We each brought a salad or something to go with salads. It was yummy! But, as I'm no photographer which I continue to prove over and over, I have a video of the food instead of photos!!
