The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) - It will take me months to process this one

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

There is a scene in the sitcom Friends where Joey is reading a book and comes to Rachel in tears, she asks him if he would like to put it in the freezer as that is the only way of coping with a book that intense. The Book Thief for me is that book.

The Book Thief is about 5 years of young Liesel's life, from age 9 to age 14, in Germany, coinciding with the war years. A fatherless child, she is sent away to foster care by her mother who is incapable of taking care of her children. She carries with her the intense grief of the death of her younger brother and of her separation from her mother. She finds herself in the house of Hans & Rosa Hubermann, a middle aged couple who somehow make ends meet. They live on Himmel street - ironically Himmel means Heaven though this was far from it. As Liesel slowly settles down in her new home and family, she begins to understand her new Papa and Mama (dysfunctional as they are but who isn't?), she battles nightmares in the night and insults during the day, but slowly, with love and patience from her new Papa, she adjusts to her new life and surroundings. Rudy, a boy in her neighbourhood, and Liesel become lifelong friends, though life itself does not last very long. Things change around them gradually and then with great speed. As Hitler's atrocities increase, Hans Hubermann is called upon to fulfill a promise made decades back to a man who had saved his life. He rises to the occasion and puts everything on the line, only to be undone by the very goodness in his heart. Rosa Hubermann tries her best to provide for everyone from the scarce and meagre resources available to her. Finally war comes to their doorstep and brings death and destruction as wars always do. Through all this, Liesel, the Book Thief grows up, developing a love for books, for the written word, for the stories books contain and for the escape they offer from her damaged childhood.        

The story that The Book Thief tells is, by itself, not unique. Most books set in Nazi Germany will inevitably tell us of death, injustice, desperation, suffering and loss. So it is with this book. There are no twists and turns, no surprises, no "I did not see that coming" moments. What makes this book outstanding is the writing and the beautiful quirks in the narration. For the narrator is none other than Death, the one who has a ring side view to all lives being lived and all suffering being suffered. He (or she or they, it is never specified so I will go with he for now) views everything as a matter of fact, as something that will happen, from such a neutral perspective that one starts liking the guy and his observations. Zusak uses this chronicler to recap things for us, outline the important and give us the essence of each moment or event. This chronicler shows us how seemingly irrelevant events are actually linked, how nothing happens without reason and how it all adds up at the end so perfectly that you can put a red ribbon on it. I was amazed at this as a reader though as a person, it made me just miserable.

There are many books that tell us of the pain of Jews who were persecuted in Nazi Germany and it makes one start to lose faith in humanity. This book chronicles the life of the ordinary non Jewish German citizen during the Holocaust. The characters are too real - their pain at seeing what is happening to people they lived with, their small acts of defiance (hats off to all the Hans and Rosa Hubermanns who must have really lived through this), their desire to do what is right risking severe punishment, their intense fear of the repercussions on their children. To all of us who ask "What were ordinary Germans doing during the Holocaust years?", this is a small part of the answer.

It will take me months to process this book. It is not one you can forget and move on. And oh - it has a teeny weeny bit of To Kill a Mocking Bird vibe to it.