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The Book Thief

Audiobook
0 of 12 copies available
0 of 12 copies available
DON’T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK’S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF.
 
The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.
 
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. 
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
 
“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times
 
“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today
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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This powerful Holocaust story is for mature, sophisticated teens and adults. Set in Nazi Germany, narrated by Death, it is 9-year-old Liesel Meminger's story. Death watches as she steals the first of 14 books at her brother's funeral, sensing they will feed her soul even before she knows how to read. Allan Corduner gives Death a strong personality with a dispassionate voice that will grip the listener; by turns sardonic, compassionate, with a dark humor, he takes no pride in being part of man's deadly cruelty to man. Corduner gives Death a voice we rarely imagine for him, as fearful of humans as we are of him, and an unwillingly participant in man's cruel, deadly events. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 13, 2006
      Corduner uses considerable zeal and a talent for accents to navigate Zusak's compelling, challenging novel set in Nazi Germany. Death serves as knowing narrator for the tale, which is framed much like a lengthy flashback. The storytelling aspects of this structure include asides to the listener, and lots of foreshadowing about what eventually happens to the various lead characters—appealing features for listeners. But Corduner seems to most enjoy embracing the heart of things here—the rather small and ordinary saga of 10-year-old Liesel Meminger, who has been given over to a foster family following her mother's branding as a "Kommunist" and the death of her younger brother. Under her foster parents' care, she learns how to read, how to keep terrifying secrets and how to hone her skills as a book thief, a practice that keeps her sane and feeds her newfound love of words. With quick vocal strokes, Corduner paints vivid, provocative portraits of Germans and Jews under unfathomable duress and the ripple effect such circumstances have on their lives. Ages 12-up.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 30, 2006
      This hefty volume is an achievement—a challenging book in both length and subject, and best suited to sophisticated older readers. The narrator is Death himself, a companionable if sarcastic fellow, who travels the globe "handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity." Death keeps plenty busy during the course of this WWII tale, even though Zusak (I Am the Messenger
      ) works in miniature, focusing on the lives of ordinary Germans in a small town outside Munich. Liesel Meminger, the book thief, is nine when she pockets The Gravedigger's Handbook
      , found in a snowy cemetery after her little brother's funeral. Liesel's father—a "Kommunist"—is already missing when her mother hands her into the care of the Hubermanns. Rosa Hubermann has a sharp tongue, but Hans has eyes "made of kindness." He helps Liesel overcome her nightmares by teaching her to read late at night. Hans is haunted himself, by the Jewish soldier who saved his life during WWI. His promise to repay that debt comes due when the man's son, Max, shows up on his doorstep. This "small story," as Death calls it, threads together gem-like scenes of the fates of families in this tight community, and is punctuated by Max's affecting, primitive artwork rendered on painted-over pages from Mein Kampf
      . Death also directly addresses readers in frequent asides; Zusak's playfulness with language leavens the horror and makes the theme even more resonant—words can save your life. As a storyteller, Death has a bad habit of forecasting ("I'm spoiling the ending," he admits halfway through his tale). It's a measure of how successfully Zusak has humanized these characters that even though we know they are doomed, it's no less devastating when Death finally reaches them. Ages 12-up.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5.1
  • Lexile® Measure:730
  • Interest Level:9-12(UG)
  • Text Difficulty:3

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