A new book review has been a long time coming for this blog, but having a book-a-week to read for my course has made reading for pleasure a little difficult. I've wanted to read The Book Thief for quite a while now after a few people have recommended it, so I was very happy to get myself a copy and actually have time to read it! I spent the beginnings of my Christmas holidays completely glued to this novel, but when I got a bit bogged down with assignments and revision I found myself reading about a chapter a week. But yesterday I finished exams and assignments so have been reading almost constantly since then, which is why I've managed to get through the second half of the book so quickly!
The Book Thief is a novel narrated by death that follows the life of Liesel Meminger (or, the book thief) following her little brother's death at the beginning of WWII in Germany. For a novel narrated by death, it is surprisingly heart-warming and the characters are beautifully formed- my particular favourites were Hans Hubermann (Liesel's caring foster father) and Max (the jew hiding in their basement who writes picture books). The character of the book thief herself is lovely too, making the conclusion to the novel pretty heartbreaking- but obviously I don't want to give anything away. My favourite part of the novel was the little inserts such as 'Here is a small fact: You are going to die' and 'A strange word: Kommunist' that break up the main body of text through and bring Death and reader close together. I also loved that all of the chapters were named- there's something about named chapters that always makes me happy. All I can say is that I definitely recommend The Book Thief and I'm very glad I found the time to read it! Apologies for the shoddy review, though, it's been a while. Next up is Kasuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (which I bought today and am very excited about!).
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