The Book Thief

Set in a small German town during World War II, The Book Thief is narrated by Death, who follows a young girl named Liesel Meminger as she learns to read, to steal, and to love amid the slow tightening of Nazi power. Plucked from her mother and delivered to foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann on gritty Himmel Street, Liesel discovers family in unlikely places: in Hans’s accordion songs and gentle midnight classes, in the fierce tenderness inside Rosa’s harsh tongue, in her golden-haired best friend Rudy, and in Max Vandenburg—the Jewish man hidden in the Hubermann’s basement.

Across stolen books and basement pages, air-raid sirens and bread tossed to marching prisoners, Liesel grows from shock and loneliness into a young woman who understands that words can be weapons—and lifelines. This story blends small domestic rituals with the vast machinery of war, weaving humor, sorrow, defiance, and forgiveness into a single, beating thread.

• Fans of literary and historical fiction who loved All the Light We Cannot See or The Nightingale
• Listeners who want a human, ground-level portrait of World War II
• Readers drawn to stories about found family, language, and moral courage
• Educators and book clubs seeking rich discussion on empathy and resistance

Markus Zusak is an Australian author best known for The Book Thief, which became an international bestseller translated into dozens of languages. He grew up listening to his parents’ stories of World War II and turned those family memories into fiction that explores how ordinary people resist cruelty and cling to love. His other works include I Am the Messenger and the Wolfe Brothers series. Zusak’s writing is known for its lyrical voice, inventive narration, and tender focus on the lives lived in the margins of history.