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 enlarge | Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Black Swan
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.68
You Save: £4.31 (54%)
New (30) Used (12) from £2.54
Avg. Customer Rating:  331 reviews
Sales Rank: 33
Media: Paperback
Pages: 560
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0552773891
EAN: 9780552773898
ASIN: 0552773891
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Death makes a fabulous narrator!! October 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I actually started to read this book with reluctance. It's everywhere in the book shops, always on some sort of offer, everyone appears to have read it. This puts me off! I don't know why. A need to be different I guess. But it had excellent reviews and for once I wasn't going to let my stubbornness get the better of me.
So I started to read The Book Thief. It's narrated by Death, different I thought, but it worked. Yes you know who's going to die before you actually read about it, but why do we have to be surprised by death! I feel that if Death hadn't prepared me for the ending of this book it would have felt a bit OTT, or I would have been so overcome with emotion I wouldn't have appreciated how life affirming this book is. The book would not be the same without the narrator.
It was an easy read. I found I'd made it through a hundred pages in no time at all, always a nice feeling. But my entire outlook on the book changed when Max's first book is given to Liesel. I was hooked; I couldn't put the book down!
The Book Thief made me laugh, and for the first time whilst reading a book, it made me cry! Some people have said that they haven't enjoyed it as it was depressing. Yes it's sad, but I feel completely enlightened having read it. It's set in a tragic time, it's narrated by death, it's going to be depressing. But above all this, it is beautiful and extremely thought provoking. It is interesting to be reading a war story from a German point of view. I think it's very easy to forget that thousands of German people lost their lives during WWII and this book is a stark reminder of this.
I have read that they are going to be turning this book into a film. If it is done well the film should be amazing! If the book made me cry I cannot imagine the mess I would be in by the end of the film. Read this book, it's important!
One of my favourite books October 29, 2008
It is original and touching. A beautiful story which made me cry, a rare event.
unforgetable October 26, 2008
This book is so different from any thing else I have read. The plot is original and unforgetable, the writing is brilliant. Read this book it will stay with you for a long time after you've finished it.
Quite frankly, a masterpiece October 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Book Theif is amazing. If you're going to read about WW2, you need to do it this way. Narrated by Death, you might expect it to be hugely harrowing, but it's not - Death is suprisingly quirky and human about things. It's a beautiful story about friendship , defiance and, of course, World War Two. It's the story of a German girl, Liesel Meminger, displaced and alone. She's taken in by bad-mouthed Rosa and Softly-spoken Hans Hubermann. Then they hide a Jew in their basement, and Liesel's world is turned upside-down as she stuggles to maintain a 'normal' lifestyle in the face of danger.
It's a fresh way of looking at the war - from the eyes of the German civillians.
It's a must for everyone. It's harrowing (I cried A LOT) but so rewarding and enlightening that it's very much worth it. And, hey, if it can make you cry, it's a sign of a good book!
 Book Thief October 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am not going to tell the plot of this book yet again, Amazon and some other reviewers have done it quite well...I will tell you that this is an astounding book, a beautiful book, and a book that I know I will read again and again......
I read a lot, two to three books a week, my family makes fun that I "love" so many that I read...but in the past few years there have only been a handful of books that when I finish reading the book I sit and try to think of who I can send a copy to, who can I share this wonderful experience with. A book that when I finish, I want to go back to the beginning and start over.
I am a little sorry it is listed as a young adult book, I feel that if the bookstores put it in the young adult section, so many people will be missing out on a wonderful experience. Yet it is important that younger readers, high school readers, read this book too. When I was growing up, I remember reading Diary of Anne Frank, and the feelings I had when I read it...and understanding the importance of everyone reading that book. Well, this book is that important, this book is a must read. However most young adult books have been great, Harry Potter, Jason Steed, Twilight.
I am going to go back and read this author's other book, I don't know how it can measure up to this one, but if it is half as good, I am in for a treat.
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