Posted at May 18, 2020
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Book Review: “The Book Thief” (This One’s for The Writers)

This book is over a decade old, so say hello to its millionth book review.  But Writers, this one’s for you, because you guys?  You can learn a lot here.  Consider this review a teaching article from Markus Zusak.

The Book Thief  covers YA, history, WWII, a bit of romance, sadness, tragedy, and childhood bliss.  All writers can learn something from this lengthy novel.  Even the narrator is a unique voice, the voice of The Angel of Death.

Writers, take note of the depth that a narrator can add to your novel.  Read this novel and see for yourself the poetic language that Death brings to the table.

This story follows a young girl who is adopted by a German family during World War Two.  Once they hide a Jew in their basement, the girl, Liesel, learns to read and write, falling in love with words.

After reading The Book Thief, even non-writers will want to write something, or at least see what words taste like, feel like, read like.  In this book, inspiration comes from all different directions, including the words that float up from Liesel’s basement, the voice of Death, and the survivors of the bomb raids.  Be prepared to cry tears of sadness and joy, because this book is about family, friendship, love, and loss.  Feed it to your teenagers, your parents, yourself, young or old.  It belongs in the hands of every reader, and most importantly, every writer.

As a writer, The Book Thief taught me the importance of sharing my characters’ small moments with my readers.  It teaches writers to throw in that extra detail, that extra little word that makes up the beauty of a sentence.  While reading this book, I remember thinking that it had some unnecessary slow chapters, but in the long run, it’s not about how slow or fast a story with this significance is.  It’s about reflecting the slow parts of a character’s life.

For all you writers out there, if you haven’t read The Book Thief, now is the perfect opportunity to pick it up.  And if you have already read it, slip it off your bookshelf, dust it off, and crack it open and read those memorizing first words:

First the colors.  Then the humans.  That’s how I normally see things.  Or at least how I try.

 

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