The Book Thief

Death describes a young boy dying while aboard a train. His mother and sister stand by helplessly as all three are put off at the next station. Death becomes fascinated with the girl, whom he has come to know as the book thief.

Years later, Death catches another glimpse of the book thief when he comes to collect the soul of an airplane pilot who has crash-landed. Rather than describing the experience in colors, Death says he sometimes sees eclipses when people die. 

Death sees the book thief one final time shortly after her street has been bombed during World War II. She has lost a book, which is her most precious possession. Death scoops it up and invites the reader to listen as he tells the story it contains.

Nine-year-old Liesel Meminger is taking a train trip to Munich with her mother and younger brother Werner in January 1939. She is dreaming of Hitler. Half-awake, she realizes that her brother has died. The mother and daughter arrange burial for the boy in a nearby town.

One of the gravediggers drops his handbook in the snow, and Liesel retrieves it and slips it into her pocket. She and her mother journey onward to the small town of Molching, where her mother is placing Liesel with a foster family because she is too poor to keep Liesel. The house is located on Himmel Street, which means “heaven” in German. It takes some persuading, but Liesel eventually enters the home of Hans and Rosa Hubermann, the stolen book still in her pocket.

Liesel learns that her real father was a communist who disappeared and that her mother was destitute and forced to part with her children. Foster mother, Rosa Hubermann, is an angry disciplinarian. Her husband, Hans, takes a gentler approach and teaches Liesel how to roll cigarettes. The girl adjusts to life in their household, but she prefers Hans to Rosa. 

Liesel is plagued by nightmares of her dead brother, but her new papa comes into the room at two in the morning to comfort her. She appreciates his kindness. Her new mama does nothing but criticize her husband, the neighbors, and the rich people whose washing and ironing she does. Liesel falls into the routine of helping Rosa with chores, going to school, and attending Hitler Youth meetings.

Liesel still clings to The Grave Digger’s Handbook because it is the last remaining link to her brother and mother. As Death says, “The point is, it didn’t really matter what that book was about. It was what it meant that was more important” (13). The girl doesn’t know how to read yet and goes to the local school to learn.

Liesel makes the acquaintance of the children in the neighborhood. She becomes a particular friend of the boy next door—Rudy Steiner—once she joins the neighborhood soccer team. Everyone thinks Rudy is crazy because he once painted his skin black and ran 100 meters in imitation of his hero, American Olympic athlete Jesse Owens.

As Liesel and Rudy roam the neighborhood together, Liesel learns about the Nazi shopkeeper, Frau Diller, the foul-mouthed old man called Pfiffikus, and the street of yellow stars where Jewish businesses have been shut down. Rudy has a crush on Liesel and says one day she’ll kiss him, but she denies that this will ever happen.

Death recounts the story of Rudy’s Jesse Owens tribute on a night in 1939, when the boy covers himself in charcoal and races around the local track. His father, Alex Steiner, comes to claim him and tries to explain the political climate to his young son. Alex doesn’t hate Jews but feels that joining the Nazi party is in his family’s best interests. He cautions Rudy never to want to be black or Jewish or anything but a blond, blue-eyed German.

In May 1939, all of Himmel Street turns out to watch a Nazi march. That night, Liesel has another nightmare and accidentally wets the bed, but Papa is there to help her clean the sheets. While changing the bedding, he finds her grave digger’s book and asks if she wants to learn to read it. Even though Papa isn’t a good reader himself, he prompts Liesel through a lesson in the alphabet, writing the letters on the backs of pieces of sandpaper.

The midnight reading lessons continue after Liesel’s nightmares subside each night. Eventually, Papa takes her down by the Amper River so they can continue their lessons during the day. When the weather is bad, they work in the basement. Since Papa is a house painter, the poverty-stricken family has an abundant supply of paint. Papa allows Liesel to paint words on the basement walls when she gets them right, using the walls like a chalkboard. Once the walls are filled with lettering, the entire basement is covered with a fresh coat of whitewash. Papa’s clothes smell like turpentine, as do Liesel’s. She recognizes this as the smell of friendship.

In the fall of 1939, Germany declares war, and Liesel moves into the proper school grade for her age. She’s now in class with Rudy, being taught by a disciplinarian nun named Sister Maria. Liesel’s reading skills still aren’t on par with the rest of the children. When Sister Maria has each student read aloud, she skips Liesel. In desperation, the girl tries to prove her reading abilities by quoting from The Grave Digger’s Handbook. Afterward, Liesel’s classmates mock her in the schoolyard. A boy named Ludwig Schmeikel harasses her so relentlessly that Liesel gives him the beating of his life. After that, the rest of the children are afraid to make fun of her.