I have just finished reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It was truly magnificent and I was howling like a baby by the end. I think it is the best book I have read in years. It is narrated by Death, who comes across as a very merciful, if misunderstood, entity. (Terry Pratchett uses Death as a narrator in some of his comic novels.) It is the story of Liesel, a nine year old girl living in Nazi Germany. I think it is really clever to set it there, as we rarely get that perspective on the Second World War. That said, pretty much all of the German characters are very sympathetically portrayed, several of them refuse to join the Nazi Party for example, and we're shown the consequences of that.
The narrator tells us very early on that Death will visit the book thief (Liesel) 3 times. And it also reveals the impending death of a key character very early in the novel. This gives the narrative a sense of foreboding, and I found myself reading with a certain amount of dread. It is written in beautifully simple, yet elegant prose. I wish I could write so sparingly.
I loved this book and I'm very keen to find out if the author has written any others.
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