My Reading Recommendation

This week, I read a book called The Book Thief. It is set in World War II Nazi Germany, and focuses on a young girl named Leisel. Her younger brother dies of hunger, and her mother sends her to live with a foster family that can better care for her. She grows to love her foster family, though it takes her years to recover from the guilt of living when her brother died. Her new father really grows into a real father, teaching her to read, patiently caring for her when she has nightmares, and loving her no matter what. Though deep in poverty, she still manages to find some beauty, especially in words. She becomes best friends with a boy next door named Rudy and develops a beautiful friendship with him which is both childish but also, at times, they undergo very difficult circumstances together as war looms over them. Leisel acquires books in different ways - one she pulls off a fire when the Nazis are burning Jewish literature. She acquires a few more from the library of the mayor's wife, who senses Liesel's love for reading and leaves the window open, so Liesel can 'steal' books to read.

It's such a beautifully written book, and is narrated by Death, which may sound bizarre but is actually really genius and a very interesting perspective. Death has Liesel's journal she loses at one point, and is re-telling her story, in which he intersects with her from time to time as people around her die.

I found it interesting to read a book placed during the Holocaust, but from the perspective of a family in Germany at the time. I think it's easy to think people in the country were all aware of the atrocities being carried out at the time, and that they willingly allowed it to happen. But the truth is, many were forced into subservience to the Nazi party because without membership, they lost all their customers and therefore their livelihoods. Also, many Germans hid Jews or offered them food or help as they were paraded through town. Liesel's family hides a Jew in the basement, and during one of the air raids as her family flees to the nearby bomb shelter, Max (the Jew) has to stay behind, risking death from the bombing.

There are many other moments of heartache as the war moves closer to Leisel's home, and the book made me both laugh and cry. I would really recommend it. It's an easy enough read, but also gripping and poetic in its use of words, and all the symbols and metaphors used within.

It is my reading recommendation for the week - The Book Thief.