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The Book Thief

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About this listen

 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 Books & Libraries Difficult Situations Education & Learning Family Family & Relationships Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Fiction Fostering Inspiring Heartfelt

What the critics say

“Brilliant and hugely ambitious…Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers…Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it’s a great young-adult novel…It’s the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope…The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults.” -New York Times

"The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic." -USA Today

"Zusak doesn’t sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five: with grim, darkly consoling humor.” -Time Magazine

"Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important." -Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject..." -Publisher's Weekly, Starred

"One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years." -The Wall Street Journal

"Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited." -The Horn Book Magazine, Starred

"An extraordinary narrative." -SLJ, Starred

Editorial Review

Cheerful. Amiable. Agreeable. But not nice. Never nice. That’s how Death describes itself, but Death isn’t the main character in this young adult fiction; Death is just the storyteller. As we set out on the eve of WWII in Germany, Death has quite the story to tell.

The tale begins in glimpses and flashes. As Death carries out his daily work gathering souls, he keeps crossing paths with a young foster girl named Liesel living on the outskirts of Munich. Death shares her story as she learns to read, befriends the Jewish man in her basement, and avoids the regular requests for kisses from her best friend, Rudy. Liesel has known little but loss in her short life, and despite her strong sense of justice, she begins to steal books. Thus, Death nicknames her The Book Thief.

In a story so captivating that Death itself can’t look away, The Book Thief audiobook inspires joy, anger, laughter, heartbreak, and most of all, love. Audie-award winning narrator Allan Corduner lends his calm, quietly humorous tone to Death’s very own surprisingly chatty voice, making this work seem as though it were created for listening to all along.

The Book Thief has transcended best-seller lists, becoming an all-time favourite and genuine must listen (and re-listen) for Audible audiobook fans around the world. It has been translated into more than 60 languages, sold more than 16 million copies, and has been turned into a feature film starring Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse in the lead role as Liesel.

This is a performance that will capture the imagination as much as the heart, and leave listeners teary-eyed and ready to immediately hit replay.

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This book, this story, is a masters work, designed to pull you in, make you trust and love it, want to share a dinner with it, reminisce and laugh into the evening with drinks and an evening stroll in the park. Then after you have said goodbye and settled; while you are still warmed by the days events as you close your eyes to dream of love and peaceful soothing memories, it is outside pouring the gasoline so that your house will burn faster

What a story
I am strongly recommending it

One of the better stories

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Beautifully written, beautifully narrated. The Book Thief truly is one of the greatest books I've ever read.

Truly an amazing story!

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loved it. loved the narrators consistency in character voices and the story, got very connected to the characters and read most of it in one go

loved it

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Absolutely LOVED this book and the narration. Perfect in every way. The subject, setting and narrator are all tragic yet this book had me laughing often also.

Beautiful

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War, death, love, innocence of childhood, loss, grief, good and evil, suffering, human resilience and the length and breadth many other emotions we feel as humans is the subject of this book. The plot is simple but the story telling is mesmerizing, read to absolute perfection by the narrator. One of THE best books I have ever read. Unforgettable.

Unforgettable!!

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