The Book Thief

By: Markus Zusak

Narrated by: Allan Corduner

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Don’t miss Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak’s first novel since The Book Thief.

The extraordinary number-one New York Times best seller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist - books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” (The New York Times)

“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” (USA Today)

©2006 Markus Zusak (P)2006 Random House Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

• Book Sense Book of the Year Award, Children's Literature, 2007

"The astonishing characters, drawn without sentimentality, will grab readers." (Booklist)
"Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers....An extraordinary narrative." (School Library Journal)
"The Book Thief will appeal both to sophisticated teens and adults with its engaging characters and heartbreaking story." (Bookmarks Magazine)

Emotional and moving

Loved it, laughed and cried throughout. I truly felt as if I'd been transported back to WWII. Eye opening recount of the struggles so many endured during that horrific period.

Fantastic Book!!!!

Loved this book! The fact that death is the narrator is so creatively creepy! Wiukd recommend this book to anyone!

An unexpectedly bittersweet and beautiful story

This book is not the typical WWII book. It certainly addresses the Holocaust, the injustices and the horrible atrocities that occurred, but at its heart, it is a story about one mostly ordinary girl caught up in the middle of it. The Book Thief deals with the complexities of the time not through battle scenes or detailed images of the concentration camps, but instead through the life of a girl living in Nazi Germany. Her story demonstrates the horrors of the time mixed with the simple pleasures, worries and difficulties of ordinary lives in a chaotic and difficult time.

The narration is stunning and beautiful, an unexpected twist consider death is the narrator. His disconnected yet simultaneously invested position in the war and human lives gave the girl's already magnificently ordinary yet extraordinary story an advantage. The descriptions are breathtaking, and the book's style is brief at times yet vividly detailed at others, and always appropriate for the moment, even if I would have expected otherwise.

I could rant on and on about how much I loved this book without really saying anything of consequence. In the end, I heartily recommend you read this book. It left me sad and hopeful and haunted and happy all at once.

The Book Thief

This book was a really good listen on audible and the narrator was perfect for this story.

The Heart Thief.....

This book stole my heart. It is difficult to get past the atrocities that Hitler threw at the Jews, and not having lived through those years but only learned about them in history class it is easy to forget the German people were not all Hitler. This story introduces you to some very wonderful German people. It reminds us that the German population was in many ways prisoners in their own country. I have fallen in love with Lisl and Hans and Rudy, Rosa and Ilsa, and of course, Max. I chuckled and I cried. It was very interesting and creative to use Death to tell the story. Death tells us at the end that Lisl survives and lives many years, having children and grandchildren, before she dies. I could have continued to listen to all the experiences her life brought her, her character was that real to me. This was an excellent listen, and I think that it was made MORE enjoyable because I did choose to listen.

Great book!

So well written! Also the narrator did a great job with performance. Loved this book!

better than expected

slow start. didnt realize the narrator is death, do wish the end had a little more detail. overall very good.

One of the Best Books I've Read in a long time

One of the best books I've read. Wonderfully engaging, super well written with great use of the language. The narration was right on. I did the combination of Kindle and Audible and it worked very well.

MesmeriZing. You Won't Be Sorry!

What did you love best about The Book Thief?

The story is a good one and the narrator is excellent

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really loved so many of them: Rudy, Liesl, Papa...they are so well drawn

What about Allan Corduner’s performance did you like?

He did an excellent job of discerning each character's "flavor"

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

No idea...but they made a film!

Any additional comments?

You won't be sorry if you listen, and you will be thinking about it long after you're done

Spectacular!

A wonderful story, beautifully written, and wonderfully presented! My favorite part (hard because there were so many) would be "The Word Shaker".