with wet cheeks I review...The Book Thief

Let me tell you while the tears are still wet on my cheeks after finishing the last pages of this book, The Book Thief, how moved I am and how much I recommend the reading of this beautiful piece of written art. I have read many books about the Holocaust from Anne Frank on...but this one is different. The focus is on the German people, non Jewish Germans who live on a poor street in a small town in Germany during WWII at the on set of the war and through the time of the bombings by Allied forces. And the narrator of this story is DEATH himself. Bravo to Mr. Markus Zusak for his brilliant slant on his story, this story of a young German Girl, Liesel. And oh yes, on one Jewish man, Max who her foster family hides in their basement.

This book was lent to me by a woman who was born in Germany and came here with her parents as a young girl. (Not Jewish).

I am married to a man who was born in Germany at the end of WWII to an American soldier and his war bride mother. (Not Jewish)

Although I got close to his mother during her lifetime here (the past 30 yrs) until her death recently; I have shied away from wanting to meet the rest of his family who still reside in Germany. I just do not know what their roles were during those war years and that not knowing makes me uncomfortable. This book perhaps helped me to understand more of how some people behaved and why; some good, admirable, some not so good nor admirable. But it makes me think and wonder what I would have done, how I would have acted having been in their shoes. What words I would have believed or rebelled against. And how I might have handled myself in those hard times. There is a lot of bravery in this story. I loved reading this book. I may even read it again. I hope you find it intriguing enough to consider reading yourself. But if you are anything like me it will make you cry.