Of all the hundreds of books I've read, very few are able to really just take my emotions, grab them in their hands, and use them at their will. This book was one of them.
At times I felt complete despair; yet there were others I felt so full of love, pride and happiness, my heart wanted to burst. There were times my eyes were welled full of tears and I didn't know how I could bring myself to keep turning the pages. Times that I was so thorougly captivated by the prose, I was on the very edge of my seat and literally felt like I was down inside the bomb shelter hearing the sirens wailing. There were many times where I was up til the silent hours of the night reading in bed with my booklight. And most of all, times where I would close the book for the night, stare at my husband and baby sleeping so peacefully, then give them big kisses and hold them with all my might.
Because I do not think the summary on the back does the book justice (or even touches the surface of the book's story) I am going to attempt to give a quick synopsis in my own words (don't worry, no spoilers).
The book is narrated from the perspective of death, who is weary and exhausted from being overworked during the WWII years. As he travels down to earth to collect souls, occassionally a certain person or story would strike his attention. In this scenario it was Liesel Meminger, a 13 year old girl who is dropped off to live with foster parents in Molching, Germany. It is from a third person view of her life that we watch Hitler rise to power, Nazi Germany in full force, a Jew hidden in the basement, the air raids of WWII, and friendship, love, life, death, sorrow and happiness. We witness Liesel (who does not know how to read at the beginning of the book) realize the power of words and that they are Hitler's means of fighting the war. We watch her use words to defy him, fight back, and save people rather than wound them. Amidst all of this, we watch her grow, find courage, and develop touching relationships.
This subject is one that's hard for me in the first place. It is so extremely difficult for me to comprehend people so out of touch with the spirit, that fellow human life meant nothing to them. It shatters my heart that any person could look at another (regardless of race, color, religion) and feel not an ounce of remorse in destroying them, their families, their relationships. I think it sums it up well when death says, "I am haunted by humans." I love the irony in his statement. We are all so fearful of death, yet what humanity is capable of is terrifying. While death haunts our thoughts and sleep, humans haunt his.
The truly great thing about this book, is that it's able to take such a dark period of history and show the beauty that existed within it. The incredible love, courage, and sacrifice that often gets overshadowed in the textbooks. The people whose hearts were so big, their love was able to overcome the fear and they would sacrifice everything for the sake of it.
If you haven't read this book yet, I would highly recommend to go do it. It will take you on a roller coaster ride and make you question which character you would have been.
I just found
this *fanmade* trailer online. Doesn't watching it just send chills down your spine? I had to click
play again as soon as it ended the first time. Note it is not the actual movie, because they havent started production on it (it is clips from other movies), but it gives you an idea of the story's intensity. I am actually a little dissappointed it is being turned into a movie, just because there is so much depth that film won't be able to capture. Still excited to see it come to life though.
