Book Thief Personification

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It is the start of World War Two and a young girl has just witnessed Death for the first time, and Death has glimpsed her. Set against the bleakness of Nazi Germany, The Book Thief details the beautiful, gut wrenching story of ten year old Liesel Meminger as she tries to survive and make sense of the confusing and often cruel world that surrounds her. Through her story, and the relationships she builds, this terrible time in history takes on new depth and a true understanding of the struggles that came with living in war-torn Germany. Markus Zusak is an award winning Australian author, having won Sydney Morning Herald's Young Australian Novelist of the Year, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. His works are critically acclaimed on an international Zusak’s use of personification to bring everything from the clouds and curtains to life is certainly extraordinary but the most obvious oddity has to be Zusak’s interesting choice of narrator. To most, Death is a terrifying ominous thing, without shape or form or voice, but to readers of The Book Thief Death is an interesting, and almost friendly companion. Due to this unconventional narrator the book occasionally is interrupted by striking interjections from Death. To some, this is an annoying inconvenience, but to others it keeps them hooked. Either way there can be no doubt that this original form of narration adds layers to characters and events that otherwise would be lost to Soon after witnessing her younger brother’s death on the train to her new foster parents home, Liesel Meminger begins a life of poverty, reading, thievery, and street football games, but in a time of war even simple happiness doesn’t last long. With the arrival of Max Vandenberg, a Jewish fist fighter, and the war growing ever closer, Liesel and her loved ones attempt to survive life rattling

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