The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

In Brief

Death tells the story of a young girl growing up in wartime Nazi Germany. Against a backdrop of Allied bombings, book burnings and concentration camp marches, she learns about life through her foster parents, her best friend and a Jewish man in hiding.

Why you should read it

A fresh angle on a much-examined subject, Zusak's book-loving, book-stealing little heroine reminds us how ordinary German children suffered for their leaders' martial ambitions. Death trips lightly through the horrors of the war to reveal a glimmer of human hope at the heart of the Nazi homeland.