The Book Thief

Book Details

64.3% complete

Author(s):

Markus Zusak

First Pub:

2005

Genre(s):

Fiction; Historical Fiction; World War II; Young Adult

First Read:

2024

Times Read:

1 time

Rating:

Chapters:

See 100

Prologue - A Mountain Range of Rubble

Death and Chocolate

Beside the Railway Line

The Eclipse

The Flag

Part One - The Grave Digger's Handbook

1 - Arrival on Himmel Street

2 - Growing Up A Saumensch

3 - The Woman with the Iron Fist

4 - The Kiss

5 - The Jesse Owens Incident

6 - The Other Side of Sandpaper

7 - The Smell of Friendship

8 - The Heavyweight Champion of the School-Yard

Part Two - The Shoulder Shrug

9 - A Girl Made of Darkness

10 - The Joy of Cigarettes

11 - The Town Walker

12 - Dead Letters

13 - Hitler's Birthday 1940

14 - 100 Percent Pure German Sweat

15 - The Gates of Thievery

16 - Book of Fire

Part Three - Mein Kampf

17 - The Way Home

18 - The Mayor's Library

19 - Enter the Struggler

20 - The Attributes of Summer

21 - The Aryan Shopkeeper

22 - The Struggler, Continued

23 - Tricksters

24 - The Struggler,Concluded

Part Four - The Standover Man

25 - The Accordionist

26 - A Good Girl

27 - A Short History of the Jewish Fist Fighter

28 - The Wrath of Rosa

29 - Liesel's Lecture

30 - The Sleeper

31 - The Swapping of Nightmares

32 - Pages from the Basement

Part Five - The Whistler

33 - The Floating Book (Part I)

34 - The Gamblers (A Seven-Sided Die)

35 - Rudy's Youth

36 - The Losers

37 - Sketches

38 - The Whistler and the Shoes

39 - Three Acts of Stupidity by Rudy Steiner

40 - The Floating Book (Part II)

Part Six - The Dream Carrier

41 - Death's Diary: 1942

42 - The Snowman

43 - Thirteen Presents

44 - Fresh Air, An Old Nightmare, and What to Do with A Jewish Corpse

45 - Death's Diary: Cologne

46 - The Visitor

47 - The Schmunzeler

48 - Death's Diary: The Parisians

Part Seven - The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus

49 - Champagne and Accordions

50 - The Trilogy

51 - The Sound of Sirens

52 - The Sky Stealer

53 - Frau Holtzapfel's Offer

54 - The Long Walk to Dachau

55 - Peace

56 - The Idiot and the Coat Men

Part Eight - The Word Shaker

57 - Dominoes and Darkness

58 - The Thought of Rudy Naked

59 - Punishment

60 - The Promise Keeper's Wife

61 - The Collector

62 - The Bread Eaters

63 - The Hidden Sketchbook

64 - The Anarchist's Suit Collection

Part Nine - The Last Human Stranger

65 - The Next Temptation

66 - The Cardplayer

67 - The Snows of Stalingrad

68 - The Ageless Brother

69 - The Accident

70 - The Bitter Taste of Questions

71 - One Toolbox, One Bleeder, One Bear

72 - Homecoming

Part Ten - The Book Thief

73 - The End of The World (Part I)

74 - The Ninety-Eighth Day

75 - The War Maker

76 - Way of the Words

77 - Confessions

78 - Ilsa Hermann's Little Black Book

79 - The Rib-Cage Planes

80 - The End of The World (Part II)

Epilogue - The Last Color

Death and Liesel

Wood in the Afternoon

Max

The Handover Man

Internal ID:

13779

Series:

No series

Dedication:

For Elisabeth and Helmut Zusak,
with love and admiration

First Sentence:

First the colors.

Last Sentence:

May contain spoilers

I am haunted by humans.

Comments:

No comments on file

Extract not on file

Added: 13-Dec-2023

Last Updated: 19-Feb-2024

15-Oct-2013

Listening Library

Book on CD

Date Issued:

15-Oct-2013

Format:

Book on CD

Cover Price:

$29.95

Length:

13 hrs 56 min (578 pages)

"Read":

Once

Reading(s):

1) 15 Feb 2024 - 19 Feb 2024

Cover Link(s):

amazon.com

Internal ID:

33418

Publisher:

Listening Library

ISBN:

0-804-16843-1

ISBN-13:

978-0-804-16843-4

Country:

United States

Language:

English

Credits:

Allan Corduner - Narration

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.
Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger finds her life changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish man in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

MARKUS ZUSAK is the author of Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger, which received a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award. On his reasons for writing The Book Thief, Markus explains, "As writers do, I begin every book knowing it will mean something to me, but with The Book Thief I've been very fortunate. It's the book that means everything to me."

ALLAN CORDUNER's numerous feature film credits include Daniel Deronda, Moonlight Mile, Topsy Turvy, Talk Radio, Yentl, and The Imposters.

Cover:

Notes and Comments:

Canada: $35.00
11 CDs

15-Oct-2013
Listening Library
Book on CD

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Author(s) Links

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Markus Zusak on Library Thing

Author(s)

Markus Zusak
Birth: 23 Jun 1975 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Awards

No awards found

I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
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When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.