The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This book is now atop my "Everyone Must Read" list, in fact it has gotten so bad that I am pestering friends and family to ensure that they have read the book before seeing the movie which was released on the 26th February.

When you read the first page and are encountered with the fact that the narrator of the book is Death, you are left stunned. From that moment, I was entranced...a book narrated by death is something that I had never considered being sorely lacking in Pratchett book history knowledge. But when the subject of the book is the Second World War, and particularly the Nazi agenda in Molching, Death is probably the only unbiased angle from which to approach the war. By utilising Death, Zusak can effectively dispel with an ideologically biased stance and to a degree allow the reader (whom is hopefully against the racial discrimination of the Nazi agenda) to simply comprehend the difficulty of people who were on the German side. Additionally, the last line of the text is something which resonates with the text's readership and makes an enormous impact upon them, challenging their preconceptions: 'I am haunted by humans.'

Throughout the duration of the novel, the reader is captured by the sense in which life is interconnected and the huge ripple effect which one human life can attain. The themes within the novel concern love and loss, particularly in the context of wartime scenarios. 

The book culminates in a rather tragic ending, and despite being forewarned by the narrator of the three instances of death due, the impact upon the reader is still heart-breaking. The narrative ensures that the reader feels emotionally connected to the characters and therefore the fatal ends to some of them feels like a personal loss. 

The main narrative concerns the story of the German Hubermann family which is Hans and Rosa, with their wartime adopted daughter Liesel Meminger who hide a Jew named Max Vandenburg during the course of the Second World War. The plot predominantly concerns the actions and events of Liesel Meminger as Death is drawn to her on various occasions. 

Outside of the central plot, Liesel Meminger's life is altered by various other characters, her best friend Rudy Steiner; the mayor's wife Ilsa Hermann and Frau Holtzapfel, whom originally begins as Rosa's arch-rival but steadily becomes emblematic of wartime disenchantment. 

This story literalises the writing over of German wartime recollection in a very new way. Just as Max Vandenburg gives Liesel the gift of the whitewashed copy of Mein Kampf in order to write her own story, Zusak effectively writes over the reader's preconceptions of the German during the Second World War to create a unique story which emotionally moves its audience. Definitely a must-read for all.