House of Literature // The Book Thief

My own tattered copy of The Book Thief

Another book I highly recommend reading. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It has gotten a lot of attention in the media and a movie is now out. However, I was initially drawn to it just by the summary of the book that I got strictly from the title. A girl who steals books. That's cool. Also, it is set in Germany during World War II, which is a fascinating time period to me as it is to most people.

So I read it... No, I devoured it.

I wanted to quote one of my favorite parts from the book. Don't worry, nothing of the plot will be given away. This is a 13-page 'storybook' that a Jew in hiding wrote for the main character, Liesel. Here it is:

"The Standover Man"

All my life, I've been scared of men standing over me.

I suppose my first standover man was my father,

but he vanished before I could remember him.

For some reason, when I was a boy, I liked to fight.

A lot of the time, I lost.

Another boy, sometimes with blood falling from his nose, would be standing over me.

Many years later, I needed to hide. 

I tried not to sleep because I was afraid of who might be there when I woke up.

But I was lucky.

It was always my friend.

When I was hiding, I dreamed of a certain man.

The hardest was when I traveled to find him.

Out of sheer luck and many footsteps, I made it.

I slept there for a long time.

Three days, they told me... and what did I find when I woke up?

Not a man, but someone else, standing over me.

As time passed by, the girl and I realized we had things in common.

But there is one strange thing.

The girl says I look like something else.

Now I live in a basement.

Bad dreams still live in my sleep.

One night, after my usual nightmare, a shadow stood above me. 

She said, "Tell me what you dream of."

So I did.

In return, she explained what her own dreams were made of.

Now I think we are friends, this girl and me.

On her birthday, it was she who gave a gift--to me.

It makes me understand that the best standover man I've ever known is not a man at all...

-Markus Zusak in The Book Thief

There were hand painted pictures to go along with it, but you'll just have to read the book to see those!

I hope that if you were on the fence about reading this book, this post helped encourage you to do it.

Thanks for reading!