The Book Thief

Australian author Markus Zusak is my new hero and inspiration. I'm two-thirds the way through The Book Thief, which is, as he says: " ... 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. . . . "

This book captivates me on a multiplicity of levels. The use of words is simply outstanding - consider this from the opening paragraphs:

Where are my manners?

I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

At that moment, you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I'll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.

The question is, what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?

These words are spoken by the book's narrator - Death. (Yeah, that Death!) Set during World War II in Germany, The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster child living in extreme poverty in a small suburb outside Munich. Liesel steals 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 off to Dachau.

This book works for me in sooo many ways. It touches on things like goodness and evil, words and literature, compassion and hatred, risk, faith, friendship, love, loss - and death. But even more than the actual story itself, as a wannabe writer, I am deeply inspired by the author, Markus Zusak.

In answer to the question of what inspired TBT:

It was a lot like finding a tap that's never been switched on before and turning it on... When I was growing up, my mum and dad told me stories about growing up in Nazi Germany - about a teenage boy who gave a starving Jewish man a piece of bread, of fiery skies and of people who didn't want to fly the Nazi flag. That world came rushing out of the tap. It was all at my feet, but then I had to organize it and turn it all into an imaginative piece of work. Fragments needed to be joined and I searched for the originality that would create not only a story but a style that was compelling for me to write.


In the end, The Book Thief took me three years to write. If nothing else, I know it’s a far different book from anything I’ve done before, which is what made it so challenging. I was also finally satisfied that there was a good sense of imagination in it. In three years, I must have failed over a thousand times, but each failure brought me closer to what I needed to write, and for that, I’m grateful.

Links to interviews: Here, here and here.