The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery...

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. [Goodreads]
This book... Wow. I don't think I can even express anything except my frusteration at the fact that I could not give this book 5,846,279,563,978,560.6 stars on GoodReads. While I am aware that it would be almost impossible to make space for 5,846,279,563,978,560.6 stars on GoodReads without becoming a website full of stars. Yeah, now that I think about that, I think I'll stick with the whole 5-star system. In this case, it is safe for you to assume that I gave this book 5/5 stars. Because I did.

Before I even began thinking about reading this book, I had absolutely no idea what it was about. Stacy from the CapterChicks made a review on The Book Thief and immediately after I heard how much she loved this book, I checked it out from my local library. [Watch Stacy's review here] I read the book within 2 weeks, not because it was a bad book--it DEFINITELY wasn't--but because it takes time to both read and appreciate a book. For me, I can't just read a book in a day and then appreciate it for a week and be done with it. I read this book so that I could appreciate the Holocaust through a German girl's eyes (albeit fictional eyes) as she watched all of this propaganda that she could not explain. This book is so powerful and there are so many real things in this book that I almost forgot that it was fiction. To me, Lesel was real, Hans was real, Mama was real, and Rudy was real. Everything about this book was beautiful. I can't describe how phenominal The Book Thief is. If you haven't read it yet, please do.