The Book Thief

Just so it's out there -- I watched the movie before I even began having thoughts of reading the book. That said, I had set my heart out to be broken the moment I read the first words. Whereas I am sad about or moved by many things/people in the story, I have no right to those feelings. (At least, I have no right to complain that I'm having them.)

This is the story of Liesel Meminger, her new life in fictional Molching, Germany, and the people whose paths had crossed hers in the years that she spent there. It is a story of life, of coming of age, during a time when the implications (and consequences) of the existence of the Third Reich were making themselves known. Lives, despite becoming increasingly difficult, went on. And the more that they did, the more I was finding out how much I cared for Marcus Zusak's characters.

I've always been intrigued by the Second World War and the Holocaust but until very recently, I had not given much thought to anything outside soldiers-quickly-turned-patriots, leaving behind their lovers and their entire lives to fight in a war in an effort to put a stop to an avalanche of heinous crimes against humanity; crimes which we can all trace back to Herr Hitler himself. The book may be so many things but on top of my head, it is a reminder that civilian populations, even of an aggressor country, are also innocent victims. It wasn't just the Jews -- this is not to say that I am denigrating their sufferings during WW2 -- who were robbed of life. There were others, too, whose only crime probably was that they were unfortunate enough to be present when everything happened.

Obviously, the story doesn't end on a happy note. (I swear, I have never been made to cry by any book before!) But the characters and the story itself have a way of pulling you in that despite your feelings, you actually find yourself drawn to it until the very end -- if not for anything else, then at least for the sake of closure.