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A novel about such a grotesque period of history should not be so enjoyable, but Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is difficult to put down. It is easy to see why the dust jacket claims it is the No. 1 International Bestseller.

Liesel is the book thief but her friends and adoptive parents call her Saumensch (dirty pig) and we learn to love this abusive name as the story progresses.

Liesel Meminger is fostered to a very simple couple in, Molching, a suburb of Munich in the years just before the Second World War. Her Communist parents are victims of Hitler’s purges, as are other characters in the course of the story. On the way to her new home, just as her younger sibling dies, Liesel steals her first book – a gravedigger’s manual.

The story is recounted by Death, who becomes very attached to Liesel and tells of his many brushes with her and her friends and family.

We re-live the war years in a different and very engaging way through the adventures of Liesel and all the genuine and lovable people who befriend her and care for her as the difficult period progresses. The history of the Holocaust and the ferocious bombings of German cities is never far below the surface of the story but this is a new and totally different interpretation of the time.

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