The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This is a clever story about a little girl Liesel Meminger and her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann during the Second World War, told from an unusual point of view, that of the voice of Death.
Some found it hard going at first but for those of us who finished this tome of some 580 pages, we loved it!! We thought the author did a good job bringing all these characters to life and had us interested in their intertwining stories. One just can't help loving papa and mama and feeling the terrible sacrifices they were willing to pay to hide Max. The Word Shaker Story was particularly clever. And the bread incident for the starving Jewish man was actually a story that the author's parents told him about the war. We feel that no one is too old for this story as it is really about humanity.
This author has written other books which are quite different to The Book Thief and this may be his best work yet.
I'd like to note that there was however a dissenting voice in our group who felt that the characters could not carry the story.
If you should want to listen to this book, it is available at Audible.com and the narrator Allan Corduner is superb.
We rate this book 9-9.5 out of 10.
Our next book is Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones and will be at Sarah's on April 27 at 7:30pm.--news flash : meeting postponed to May 10th.
