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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief is narrated by Death, but revolves around 9-year-old Liesel Meminger who loses her family in Germany during World War II. At her brother's funeral, she steals a book from one of the gravediggers. Once she arrives at the home of her new foster family, she's taught to read from that book, and sets about gathering more books. She saves books from book burnings and steals them one at a time from the mayor's wife's library. Books are the conduit for growing closeness to her new family, and when a Jewish man is hidden in their basement, books form his relationship with Liesel too. Death, though, continues to gather souls, and he still has his eye on Liesel. Markus Zusak's novel has received mostly positive reviews with the Cleveland Plain Dealer saying, "In the end, Zusak's story is about words, the power we give them and the magic they carry in their own right. The Book Thief is both gripping and touching, a work that kept me up late into the night feverishly reading the last 300 pages."
