The Book Thief.
If you take a look at the blurb of the book itself it's quite obvious what the story will entail.
The story takes place during the war in Germany, more specifically on Himmel Street and it follows the life of Liesel Meminger. The story is narrated by death who cannot stop his curiosity and visits Liesel on numerous occasions as she seems to 'dodge the bullet' so to speak.
To briefly describe the book without giving any insight or ruining the story is to say that it's beautifully written.
I have not previously read any of Markus Zusak's books but a quick google search would tell you that he began writing young adult fiction. The Book Thief is known to be his first adult novel. If you scroll through reviews on Amazon you may find various individuals criticising the style of writing in The Book Thief due to the fact that Zusak has only previously written young adult fiction. Some claim the prose is 'abominable' and the book is 'aimed at people with the attention span of a gnat'. I completely disagree with this as not only is the book 553 pages long (which someone with 'an attention span of a gnat' wouldn't be able to complete), I don't view the prose as abominable at all. In terms of the character Liesel, the prose is immature but this is of course is intended by Zusak as Liesel is supposed to be viewed as childish and vulnerable.
I will admit that because of the change in viewpoint i.e. how Death will discuss his life and flash back through time, then return to Liesel's story, that the book is flawed as sometimes it does get a little confusing. But in a nutshell I thought Death as a character was a stroke of genius, I found his little tales and ramblings enjoyable and overall I thought he told the story very well.
I'd also like to point out the ending (which I won't go into detail about as it will obviously ruin the story). The ending was hard to describe as I found it very emotional yet somewhat too short compared with the overall book. In one way, Zusak spent too much time in the beginning and middle of the book meaning less time was spent on the ending which I would have wanted more elaboration on.
Overall, the book is very well written and definitely one to check out as it has been appearing in the book charts recently.
I hope my review was helpful...
Bisous
Beckie
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