The Book Thief Sparknotes

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The Book Thief is a thought provoking novel narrated by death during the Second World War. The novel begins with the protagonist, Liesel, her mother and younger brother Werner who are travelling to Munich where the children are going to be taken into foster care. Werner suddenly dies as a result of poverty stricken conditions and the journey is interrupted by his burial. Liesel is dropped off with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in a town called Molching. Rosa is insulting and shows little care for Liesel but Hans quickly wins Liesel over with his gentle and kind ways. Liesel slowly starts adapting to her new estranged life and befriends a neighbourhood boy, Rudy. Hans discovers a book which Liesel had stolen from the grave digger at her brother’s burial and begins teaching Liesel how to read. World War II is underway and the town holds a book burning ceremony in celebration of Hitler’s birthday. Liesel steals a book but the Mayor’s wife sees her. …show more content…

Liesel is amazed at the amount of books in the Hermann’s library. A Jewish man, Max, arrives at the Hubermann’s house in hopes of being hidden from the Gestapo in the Hubermann’s basement. Hans had promised Max’s mother a favour after her husband had saved Hans’ life in World War I. Hans agrees to hide Max. Liesel and Max develop a strong friendship during his time in their basement. Mrs Hermann tells Liesel they no longer need her help with laundry services. Liesel is very upset and decides to sneak into their library with Rudy to steal books to read. Max falls terribly ill and falls into a coma. The Nazi Party are constantly doing house checks to see if Germans are breaking any of their rules, which terrifies the Hubermann’s. When Max recovers he decides to leavethe house out of fear that he is putting the Hubermann’s in great

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