di Sara Matteoli
”A novel of breath-taking scope, masterfully told”
GUARDIAN
”Brilliant and hugely ambitious…the kind of book that can be life-changing”
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
The book thief is a novel written by a young australian writer, Markus Zusak (Alfred A. Knopf Publishing). It was published in 2005 and has won numerous awards. 
I came across this book only two months ago, thanks to the advice of my friend Francesca, whom I’d asked to give me a list of books to read in English. What great advice was that! I must admit that it is one of the most pleasant and astonishing books I have read, so far. I will do my best to transmit my enthusiasm and guide to you through the novel without giving too much away, I promise!
The book is brilliant and ingenious. For the first time it is a novel narrated by Death. It is not the classical dark and horrific image that we have in mind, but a funny and sarcastic figure that goes around the world, gently collecting the souls of those just departed, and making comments about the behaviour of the Mankind.
(from the book) “A human doesn’t have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.”
Death tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a 9-years-old girl who has been transferred to the house of her foster parents in a poor part of Munich. She learns to read and so her passion for books begins. Her story and her love for her new Papa, a boy called Rudy and a Jew hiding in a basement, are also the story of the Second World War seen from an unusual perspective. Indeed, the book is set in the Nazi Germany, but it does not describe the details of war. Death takes you by the hand and leads you through the daily life of some of those “ordinary Germans” who lived in such a terrible period, torn between joining the Nazi Party to avoid being persecuted, and following their heart.
Page after page, you reflect about what happened during that time, and think that, despite the danger and sorrow, there were so many wonderful people who were prepared to help others at any cost (the protagonist is one of those).
A novel set in Nazi Germany and narrated by Death might not seem an enjoyable reading, but it is so well written that the combination works. The style is simple, but not obvious, and intriguing, so that it makes you read all pages without needing any break.
I strongly recommend reading this book, which, between a smile and a tear, will open your heart.
