The Book Review, Sunday, March 25, 2012: The Book Thief

Dear Readers,

This is the best book Madame L has read in ages. Please read it.

Oh, do you want some more details?

Liesel Meminger's parents are Communists in Nazi Germany. Her little brother dies even as Liesel's mother is taking them to a foster home to be safe. Their father has already been taken away, and soon enough Liesel finds out that her mother has been taken, too.

Is that why Liesel steals books? No, it is not. The many reasons for Liesel becoming the book thief are too complex to relate here.

Maybe you would have to be Death Himself to understand why. And that's okay, because Death is the narrator of the Liesel's story. Can you imagine a more appropriate --- or more omniscient --- narrator for a story about surviving Nazi Germany?

Don't try to read this book while you need to focus on something else. It's not great beach or airplane reading. It demands that you savor every sentence, that you go back and re-read whole passages, that you promise yourself to re-read the whole book.

But read it. You'll find more satisfaction in reading this book than in any quick-read page-turner. Madame L promises you that.