The Book Thief

In a book narrated by Death, one might expect that the concept of death represents a central theme. However, only a certain type of death achieves prominence in The Book Thief. It is significant that the story follows Liesel from the age of 9 to 14. She is growing up during the Second World War years—1939 through 1943. During that time, she repeatedly witnesses the deaths of her family and friends, and none of them die naturally. The death of her brother from illness and the disappearance of her mother can both be indirectly attributed to the Nazi persecution of her communist father.

Hitler’s regime is implicitly responsible for most of the stupidly random deaths that occur throughout the book. A soldier who switches seats in a van with Hans is thrown from the vehicle and suffers a broken neck. An American pilot accidentally crashes his plane into the Amper River and dies. Everyone living on Himmel Street is killed in an aerial bombing that was an offshoot of an attack meant for another target. Alex Steiner’s decision to keep his son at home accidentally gets Rudy killed.

The theme of wartime deaths also reaches back in time to World War I, when Max’s father saves Hans from dying on a battlefield by a stray comment about his penmanship. That same friend dies while Hans is safely copying letters for a commanding officer. Of course, Hans later dies in the bombing raid that wipes out all of Liesel’s community.

Clearly, the author is trying to draw a distinction between ordinary death and the colossal stupidity of wartime death. He expands the canvas by allowing Death, the narrator, to talk about collecting the souls of people outside the main story. All of their deaths are also attributable to war. The battles on the Russian front, the beachhead at Normandy, and the slaughter of millions of Jews keeps Death busy during the war years. Even he becomes demoralized by the carnage that he has to clean up. He says, “There is death. Making his way through all of it. On the surface: unflappable, unwavering. Below: unnerved, untied, and undone” (97). The only central character in the story who gets to live to a ripe old age and die of natural causes is Liesel.