Synopsis:  Death narrates the story of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old girl living with a foster family in Nazi Germany. This is her story, the story of her family and Max, the Jewish man who they hide in their basement, the other inhabitants of the street in which they live and of the books that Liesel steals to satisfy her cravings for words.

Review: Death narrates this story of Liesel Meminger. He first meets her when she is nine, travelling on a train with her brother to a foster family. Death is there because her brother dies on the journey and he sees Liesel take the first of the books she will steal. Death describes her life with her foster father, Hans Huberman, a gentle, kind man who teaches Liesel to read. He describes episodes in Liesel’s life – her realisation that she is fostered because her parents were communists and the upheaval caused by the entry of Max Vandenburg into the lives of the Hubermans. For Max is Jewish, and the Hubermans agree to hide him out of loyalty to an old friend and because the Hubermans are decent, kind people who have not lost their humanity, although they live in terrible times. The reader sees Liesel realise the importance of words, she steals more books and has books given to her that Max has manufactured from pages of “Mein Kampf”, written and illustrated by himself. The reader is left in no doubt by Death, of the importance of words to humanity.

One of the strengths of the book is that it deals with ordinary German people living under Fascism. It makes it clear that it is not easy for ordinary people to resist when living under the conditions that existed in Nazi Germany and how these conditions lead to the dehumanisation of people. However, it makes clear that people could and did resist and that humanity can flourish under the most horrendous of situations

This is an extremely moving book. Death is never sentimental, just interested and practical about the job that he does and the people that he meets. We see events and people through his eyes – people like Hans Huberman, who preserves his humanity and remains a hero, though he tries to become a member of the Nazi Party and never fires a shot. The publishers are issuing the book in both children and adult editions. Whether this is really a children’s book is up for debate. It can certainly be read by young adults, but whether there is a need for a separate children’s edition is difficult to tell. Is it for children? Not as a matter of course, but if they are interested. It will not be easy and it will lead to questions. But that is as it should be.

2006-12-20