The book thief



Brilliant,
Simply brilliant.

I’ve spent hours pondering over some of the paragraphs, wondering how they were written with such beauty, and how, can words shatter your whole world and reform it into another just in a second?

“ The book thief” is a tale of Love, Loss, and all that’s in between. It’s the story of Leisel, the little girl who lived in 33 Himmel Street with her foster parents in Nazi Germany. Through the eyes of “death” we see it all. The little joys of her childhood, the lives she touched, and the endless books she stole. With his witty-dark sense of humor and bitter sarcasm, there is certainly no better narrator than Death.


"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."
—Death (The Book Thief)

"I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate."
— Death (The Book Thief)

Books weren’t the only thing Leisel stole, for she stole blue skies and white clouds. She tucked the sun in her pocket along with the best moments of her day and took them home to max, the Jew they’re hiding in the basement. To max, Leisel, became the reason he took a new breath every morning. Every time his mind decided to slip away, there she’d be, standing at the basement door, snow dripping between her hands, or a new book tucked under her arms. Where there’s gloom, there’s Leisel, with her laughter, and kind, idiotic heart, just like her foster Papa.For in Nazi Germany, kindness and mercy, are certainly idiotic. Especially if they make you hide a Jew in your basement.

"A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."
— Death (The Book Thief)

Leisel’s Papa is one of those characters you crave to bring into this world. With his music, his beautiful resilience, and his incredible affection, he changed their horrifying reality. A painter by all means.

"Better that we leave the paint behind," Papa told her, "than ever forget the music."
— (The Book Thief)

And finally her best friend, Rudy, Rudy Steiner, the boy who’s dreams were larger than the town of molching, and certainly bigger than Munich. Beyond Hitler, beyond the war, and beyond life and death.

“He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world. She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain.”

My heart wept for humanity, for broken dreams, for love, for sacrifice. it wept silently, for the cruelty of mankind, and the innocence of childhood.

Powerful, profound, heart-shattering, mind numbing..that what it is, that what it is..

Life of Pi



A thought-provoking masterpiece.
One that would take you to the middle of the pacific, with nothing to embrace except for faith, and the will to remain despite all.
“ Life of Pi” tells the story of Piscine, Pi, a 16- years old boy who was left on a boat in the middle of the ocean with a Bengal tiger, a zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan.

Pi’s journey started when his father, a famous Indian Zoo-keeper, had decided to move his family to Canada away from the political chaos that came along with Indira Ghandi. The move didn’t only include Piscine’s family (consisting of his mother,father and brother ) but it had also included the herd of animals from the Zoo which had been a part of his life since he was born. Piscine had spent almost all his childhood among those animals, roaming around the zoo and visiting each and every one of them. His relationship with them became personal as he found himself always defending the Zoo against those people who believed that it refrained the animal’s freedom. Pi strongly believed that on the contrary , a zoo provided animals with safety, well-being, and protection, all of which wilderness lacked.

"Animals in the wild lead lives of compulsion and necessity within an unforgiving social hierarchy in an environment where the supply of fear is high and the supply of food is low and where territory must constantly be defended and parasites forever endured." Life of Pi

"I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both." Life of Pi

The most intriguing aspect of Pi’s character is his embrace and devotion to three religions: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Pi was perplexed at people’s confusion when it came to his religion ( the combination of three ). The way he saw it, the belief in God was a common thread between the three religions despite their difference, So why couldn’t he take something from each? Hence, he went to church every Sunday, Prayed in the mosque on Friday, and visited the Temple on Tuesday. Pi believed that embracing three religions was better than being Agnostic, for not being certain is not a way of living.

"Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims." Life of Pi

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” Life of Pi

Devastatingly, the family's ship had sunk on their way to Canada , taking away Pi’s family and everything he had known with them. He found himself on a lifeboat along with a tiger (Named Richard Parker), a broken-legged zebra, and a hyena that had fallen off the ship into the boat. Later on, an orangutan had found its way to the lifeboat too as it came floating on a wrapped pile of banana. Eventually, the hyena devoured the zebra inside out, and then attacked the orangutan; the tiger then devoured the Hyena, leaving the boat empty except for himself and Pi. Pi’s ordeal had begun then as he started struggling for survival while trying to stay away from Richard Parker. The ordeal lasted 227 days; a number barely describing what took place in between.
At the end, came the blow.
Pi was interviewed as the only survivor of the ship. When his survival story was discarded as “ Implausible”, Pi then started retelling another story, replacing the animals with people. He asked the interviewers if they had found the second story more believable since it included people. In the new story, Pi’s mother replaced the orangutan, the zebra was the ship’s captain, the Hyena was the cook, and Richard parker was Pi himself.

The author brilliantly provided the reader with an undeniable question of faith, as both stories could’ve occurred yet the first required a leap of faith while the second meant that a horrific cannibalistic series of murder had occurred on that boat. Did Pi replace what really happened with an “ Alternate” story to shield himself from the pain and horror of what had happened? Or did he really live for 227 days with a Bengal tiger whose animalistic instincts would’ve made him devour Pi in less than an hour?

"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality." Life of Pi

I could still see Pi, on that Boat as if he had imprinted himself behind my eyelids, I could hear his heartbeat when he caught a glimpse of Richard Parker. I could feel his pain, his hunger, his horrifying loneliness and despair. I gave up before he did, for I saw no life ahead after all of this. But he did. On that dark horizon, in the middle of the deep Pacific Ocean; Pi saw the silver lining.