It is 1939. Nazi Germany. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words. But when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again.
SPECIAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION with exclusive extra behind-the-scenes material from the author
It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier - and will become busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library . . . wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
Now a major film from Twentieth-Century Fox starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson.
"Brilliant and hugely ambitious...Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers...Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it's a great young-adult novel...It's the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope...The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults." -New York Times
"The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic." -USA Today
"Zusak doesn't sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five with grim, darkly consoling humor." -Time Magazine
"Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important." -Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject..." -Publisher's Weekly, Starred
"One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years." -The Wall Street Journal
"Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited." -The Horn Book Magazine, Starred
"An extraordinary narrative." -SLJ, Starred
MARKUS ZUSAK is the bestselling author of six novels, including THE BOOK THIEF. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, to both popular and critical acclaim. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.
Find Markus on his blog
Facebook /markuszusak
Instagram @markuszusak
.
This item is eligible for simple returns within 30 days of delivery. Return shipping is the responsibility of the customer. See our returns policy for further details.
