From my shelves

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..