When I first started reading, I wasn't sure what to make of it and I wasn't sure if it would be something that would grip me and make me want to finish it. Well, I'm very glad to say that I DID become gripped by and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It's about a girl called Liesel Meminger, who goes to live with a foster family in Molching, just outside Munich. In 1939. It's Nazi Germany, and the story relates her adventures growing up in this time of war and of all the joys and losses she experiences.
The characters are all quite realistic and come running fully formed into my mind, and I can easily sympathise with them.
I thought the style of the book was particularly interesting, as it isn't narrated by Liesel herself, but is actually narrated by Death, who is quite a clever character in his own right, with a dark sense of humour you can see death having.
The finale of the book is alluded to several times by death, and while you might think this might ruin a book, it somehow doesn't and works really well. I think it was first alluded to early on, but I had forgotten that by the time I was mostly through the book and it was alluded to again. Despite knowing the outcome, when it finally came I was still incredibly sad and I'll admit that I cried when I read the final Himmel Street scene!
This book was incredible. It struck a particular chord with me as my Nan had died less than a year before I read this, and she was German and had grown up in Nazi Germany before marrying my British grandfather after the war and moving to England. I already knew that. But only a month or two before I read 'The Book Thief', my Dad had shown me her account of her life in Nazi Germany and all the loss she experienced that I was completely unaware of, and this book greatly reminded me of that and so for that I think this book particularly touched me.
Overall, a very good book, and one that I would definately recommend to anyone. It will really touch your heart.