{Audiobook} Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Series: n/a
Narrator: Allan Corduner
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: September 12th, 2006
Source: Borrowed Audio from Library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

It's just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist: books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids - as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

I'm a little late to the train on this one. So many of my friends have read and loved this book. Finally, I got around to it. And I can kind of see what all the rage is about. 

The Book Thief is beautiful and terrible all in one shot. The writing and story was top notch, but I did find myself bored at times. These kind of books are hard for me to stay interested in. I got the audio through my library and I had to take it back out because I didn't finish it the first time around. This story is depressing. I mean.. it takes place during World War II, so of course it's depressing. It was hard to listen to. There were moments though, moments of hope that just lit me up with warmth, and for those moments, I'm glad I listened to it.

The narrator is death! And that was pretty freaking cool. I loved how he mentioned little things early on, and you didn't get to see them play out until the end. The narrator did a fantastic job of reading death. If I could do it again, I would listen to the audio. I kind of followed along on my kindle, but mostly I stuck with the audio. 

I have not seen the movie.. but I plan to. I think I will like it. Maybe even more than the book. We will see.

Rating The Book Thief was tricky... because if I had to rate it based on my interest, it would be a 3 or 3.5, but the writing is a 5 hands down. So that brings me to a solid 4 I think. I'm glad I gave this one a shot, but I probably won't read any of his other stuff. 

About the author:

Markus Zusak was born in 1975 and is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief , which is translated into more than forty languages. First released in 2005, The Book Thief has spent a total of 375 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and still remains there eight years after it first came out.

His first three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe and When Dogs Cry (also known as Getting the Girl ), released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally and garnered a number of awards and honours in his native Australia, and the USA.

Find Markus:

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