A truly gripping novel. I have the audio book, masterfully narrated by Allan Corduner. Almost immediately after I finished listening to it, I started it again. It’s that good. It’s sad and tragic – it’s hard to drive when you’re crying – but it’s also sweet and poignant. And it feels so real. I’ve been afraid to watch the movie… you know how it is when you love a book and how painful it is when the movie fails to even begin to live up to the book. I suppose I will watch it eventually.
One of the most memorable quotes from the incredibly well-done audio book – Death says, “I am haunted by humans.” He speaks several times of how off-putting humans are – they are so horrible; they are so good. And we meet both in the book. Liesel is a little girl with nothing, living in WWII Germany. Her mother drops her off to be fostered in another city from where she lived. Her brother dies on the train trip. She comes to live, however, with truly deep and wonderful people, though it doesn’t seem so at first. And she meets Rudy with the lemon-colored hair, the boy that loves her.
But, of course, it is her love for books – Liesel cannot even read at the beginning of the novel – that endears her to me. She meets another broken but loving character who provides access to a wondrous library. And she has a book written for her by another haunted soul who loves her… the book thief.
I love books, but some books much more than others. And this one sits at the top of my list.