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Mar 10, 2018wyenotgo rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This one simply blew me away. Never mind what at first seems like a gimmick (Death as narrator) and never mind that it's perhaps seen as a YA novel (I haven't shelved it as such). Here is human tragedy, love, joy writ large; even laughter in the midst of the horror of war. Zusak's use of words is like nothing I've encountered before. I started making notes of spectacular passages and soon gave up: they're everywhere. Of particular note is his recurrent reference to color: the color of pain, hunger, hope, war, streets, skies. A battlefield: "The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies." A truly compelling story, a setting that pulls you into its midst; and what characters! In Liesel the book thief, Zusak has created one of the truly memorable personalities of contemporary fiction. She is feisty, perceptive, loving and thoroughly real. This book caused me to break my promise to myself to stop reading anything having to do with Nazi Germany, and I'm happy to have broken that promise. Very highly recommended!