Power and perfection: The Book Thief
More than just a book, this story is something bigger, stronger and more powerful than simply young adult fiction. Hivda Aydogan explains why she loves it.
I have read ‘The Book Thief’ eleven times over the course of the last six years. And each time I read it, I fall in love with the story a little bit more.
I have read many, many books. I’ve flicked through the pages of a multitude of stories, genres, endings – but nothing has affected me as strongly and as deeply as this book has. For me to make this claim from the sea of books I’ve read is a bold one – but I would not deny the fact that I have a love for the heart-wrenching novel that outweighs anything else.
The first time I read The Book Thief, I was 9 years old. Unbelievable, now that I think about that in retrospect, due to the sheer task and emotional toll of reading such a book – but I did. I asked my cousin at university to borrow it, which he happily allowed. The pages ran through my eager fingers like water, and it was finished in a matter of weeks.
The Book Thief is agonising, painful and beautifully raw. It tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl caught in the midst of Nazi Germany and the Second World War. With her father gone, her mother gives her up for adoption and Liesel is forced to adapt to a new way of living. The blurb itself tells the summary to blunt perfection: a story about a girl, an Accordionist, and a Jew. However, the most unique thing about the novel is that the book is narrated by Death himself. An observer, a watcher, a collector of souls, telling the one story he has failed to forget.
Something about this book touches me. It truly grips an iron fist around my heart, clamped tight – it’s impossible to portray even a shred of stoicism or indifference upon reading it. I do believe that it will crack even the most marble of hearts. Each time I’ve read it, I have found myself facing a bubbling, hot, incandescent anger, an excruciating, aching, gut wrenching pain - an overwhelming, bright, bittersweet happiness. Like every war-time novel, there is carnage, chaos and destruction that disrupts the paths of the characters. But every event, every raw and detailed description is a force which makes the reader enraptured in the agony of it all. I would say without a hint of hesitation in my mind that Markus Zusak is a literary genius, weaving words together like an artist painting a masterpiece. Unsurprisingly, I am in awe of every bit of description and the story is so enthralling that it becomes impossible to put it down.
You marvel. Truly, you marvel at such strokes of brilliance and ability, a mastermind of an author, a prodigy at what he does.
The Book Thief has been my favourite book for 6 years because I see a new meaning each time, I notice something I missed before each time, and it makes me FEEL. I love the power it has.
I have never read something that has forced me to feel so much in such little time. It’s overwhelming. I cry every time I read the end. For some people, it could be too much. Too difficult to comprehend. For people who love a happy ending, The Book Thief is definitely not the right fit.
But my decision remains firm, and I remain adamant. This novel will take you on the emotional journey of a lifetime. Heartbreak. Happiness. Everything.
Hivda Aydogan, Y11
I have read ‘The Book Thief’ eleven times over the course of the last six years. And each time I read it, I fall in love with the story a little bit more.
I have read many, many books. I’ve flicked through the pages of a multitude of stories, genres, endings – but nothing has affected me as strongly and as deeply as this book has. For me to make this claim from the sea of books I’ve read is a bold one – but I would not deny the fact that I have a love for the heart-wrenching novel that outweighs anything else.
The first time I read The Book Thief, I was 9 years old. Unbelievable, now that I think about that in retrospect, due to the sheer task and emotional toll of reading such a book – but I did. I asked my cousin at university to borrow it, which he happily allowed. The pages ran through my eager fingers like water, and it was finished in a matter of weeks.
The Book Thief is agonising, painful and beautifully raw. It tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl caught in the midst of Nazi Germany and the Second World War. With her father gone, her mother gives her up for adoption and Liesel is forced to adapt to a new way of living. The blurb itself tells the summary to blunt perfection: a story about a girl, an Accordionist, and a Jew. However, the most unique thing about the novel is that the book is narrated by Death himself. An observer, a watcher, a collector of souls, telling the one story he has failed to forget.
Something about this book touches me. It truly grips an iron fist around my heart, clamped tight – it’s impossible to portray even a shred of stoicism or indifference upon reading it. I do believe that it will crack even the most marble of hearts. Each time I’ve read it, I have found myself facing a bubbling, hot, incandescent anger, an excruciating, aching, gut wrenching pain - an overwhelming, bright, bittersweet happiness. Like every war-time novel, there is carnage, chaos and destruction that disrupts the paths of the characters. But every event, every raw and detailed description is a force which makes the reader enraptured in the agony of it all. I would say without a hint of hesitation in my mind that Markus Zusak is a literary genius, weaving words together like an artist painting a masterpiece. Unsurprisingly, I am in awe of every bit of description and the story is so enthralling that it becomes impossible to put it down.
You marvel. Truly, you marvel at such strokes of brilliance and ability, a mastermind of an author, a prodigy at what he does.
The Book Thief has been my favourite book for 6 years because I see a new meaning each time, I notice something I missed before each time, and it makes me FEEL. I love the power it has.
I have never read something that has forced me to feel so much in such little time. It’s overwhelming. I cry every time I read the end. For some people, it could be too much. Too difficult to comprehend. For people who love a happy ending, The Book Thief is definitely not the right fit.
But my decision remains firm, and I remain adamant. This novel will take you on the emotional journey of a lifetime. Heartbreak. Happiness. Everything.
Hivda Aydogan, Y11
