In 1939, nine-year-old Liesel Meminger is taken to live with foster parents on Himmel Street in Molching, a small town near Munich. On the way, at her brother's graveside, she picks up her first stolen book, a gravedigger's handbook she cannot yet read. Her accordion-playing foster father, Hans Hubermann, teaches her letters in the basement late at night, while his sharp-tongued wife Rosa hides real tenderness.
Liesel befriends Rudy Steiner, a lemon-haired neighbour who idolises Jesse Owens, and begins rescuing books from Nazi bonfires and the library of the mayor's wife. The Hubermanns then take a dangerous step by hiding Max Vandenburg, a young Jewish man, in their basement. Words become Liesel's way of understanding and resisting the world around her.
The narrator is Death, weary, wry and oddly compassionate, who announces some events in advance and comments on human nature. Zusak, an Australian whose parents grew up in Germany and Austria, drew on their stories. Published for adults in Australia and as young adult fiction elsewhere, the book became an international bestseller and a 2013 film.
Book details
| Author | Markus Zusak |
|---|---|
| First published | 2005 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 552 |
| Setting | Molching, a fictional town near Munich, Germany, 1939-1943 |
| Awards | Michael L. Printz Honor 2007 |
Themes
- The power of words
- Death
- Courage
- Friendship
- Life under Nazism
Who should read it
Teenagers and adults who want a moving Second World War story about books, family and kindness.