Markus Zuzak, "The Book Thief": a summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The Book Thief was written in 2005. Its author is a young Australian writer Markus Zuzak. The book was highly acclaimed by critics and readers. The book was hailed by the world press as one of the best literary works about World War II.

Death Storyteller

The action takes place in Nazi Germany. The story is told from the perspective of Death. Death in The Book Thief, a summary of which is presented in this article, is masculine.

Death breaks his age-old rule of dealing only with the dead and begins to watch with curiosity a girl he calls a "book thief". Death and the girl met three times: when the brother of the “book thief” died, when Death came for the dead pilot, when the bombing ended. Then the girl accidentally lost the book she was writing about herself. Death found the book and decided to tell the story of the "book thief".

The Gravedigger's First Book

January 1939. Germany. A woman is taking her daughter and son to foster parents. The woman's husband is a missing communist. By giving the children to foster parents, she hopes to save the children from Nazi persecution. On the way, the unfortunate boy dies of pulmonary hemorrhage. His death makes a huge impression on the girl. After the boy's funeral, his sister, whose name is Liesel Meminger, picked up the book that the gravedigger had dropped. So she became a “book thief.”

New family

In the book "The Book Thief", a summary of which is presented in this article, it is said that a lady from the state guardianship took Liesel to the city of Molking on Himmel Strasse - Sky Street and entrusted her to foster parents, the Hubermanns. Foster parents seemed to the girl not the most charming people. Rosa and Hans Hubermann are rude and not prone to violent manifestations of feelings, people who, by conviction, are anti-fascists. They tell Liesel to call them Mom and Dad. The girl is a little afraid of her foster mother, although she begins to become attached to her. In the summary of Zuzak's The Book Thief, it is said that the girl quickly found a common language with Hans. His kindness and calm helped her survive the nightmares that tormented her after the terrible death of her brother.

At school

The girl went to school. Although she is 9 years old, she is forced to go to the same class with the kids, because she is not even trained in the basic skills of reading and writing. The summary of The Book Thief tells that Hans, upon seeing Liesel's book, tells her that it is called The Gravedigger's Instructions. The adoptive father teaches the girl to read. She is transferred toclass to peers, where she meets the boy Rudy, with whom she develops a strong friendship.

Rudi Steiner is the neighbor of the Hubermanns. He dreams of being like his idol, black American track and field athlete Jesse Owens, who won 4 gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.

Liesel is not very good at reading, she is not easy to learn. Her classmates laugh at her and she fights back.

Start of war

The Second World War begins. Things are going badly for the Hubermanns. They are getting poorer. Liesel learns to write letters. She decides to write to her mother, for this she steals money from the Hubermanns and sends a letter. An angry Rose punishes the girl. The letter does not reach the addressee - Liesel's mother was taken away by the Nazis.

Second Book

April 20, on the birthday of Adolf Hitler, a huge fire is kindled in Molching, into which they throw old things and books recognized by the Nazis as harmful to the Germans.

Hans fights with his Nazi son. Death says that the young man will die in the Battle of Stalingrad.

When dusk fell, the people went home, and the fire burned out, Liesel and Hans passed by. Liesel furtively picks up and hides the miraculously intact book Shrug. This is seen by the governor's wife, who is known as a lunatic.

My Struggle

Liesel is worried that the governor's wife will betray her, but in vain. She shows the girl her room filled with books.

Hanstrades Hitler's book "My Struggle" for tobacco.

Death tells about Max, a young Jew. He is forced to hide in a closet and starve. A friend gives him fake documents enclosed in the book "My Struggle" and advises him to go to Hans in Molching.

As summer approaches, Liesel reads The Shoulder Shrug at night and books she takes from the burgomaster's library during the day. By chance, the girl finds out the reason for the insanity of the governor's wife - this is the death of her only son.

Arthur Berg is a fifteen-year-old teenager, the leader of a gang that robs neighbors' orchards and orchards. He accepts Liesel and Rudy into the gang. Summer has passed, Arthur has left. Death saw him in Cologne holding his dead sister.

Max arrives in November and opens the door of Hans' house with his key.

Max

Hans tells Liesel the story of how he met Max. As it turned out, his father saved Hans's life during the First World War. In turn, Hans saved Max during the Jewish pogrom by putting him in his basement for two years. Hans punishes Liesel not to betray Max.

Girl and Max become friends. A Jew paints the pages of Hitler's book and makes illustrations to the story of his acquaintance with Liesel to give her a birthday present.

Third book "Whistler"

The governor's wife gives Liesel the book Whistler, but the girl rudely refuses.

In the summer, Victor, a sadist who treats Rudy rudely, becomes the leader of the gang. At Liesel's instigation, the teenagers break into the governor's house. Liesel steals a book.

Fourth bookgirl

So that Max can make a snowman, Liesel brings him snow in the basement. Max falls seriously ill and recovers only by the middle of spring.

Liesel steals a new book - The Postman of Dreams.

New fifth book

Rudy becomes the champion of local sports competitions. Liesel steals a new book.

The summary of The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak says that during the bombing, a girl reads to people in the Whistler's bomb shelter. Max on this occasion makes a series of illustrations "Word Shaker".

Hans gives bread to an old man from the column of Jews, both are beaten. Max has to leave the Hubermanns.

The Nazis want to take champion Rudy to their special school, but his father refuses to give him up. Father Rudy and Hans are sent to the front.

Sixth book

The book "The Book Thief", with a summary of which is interesting to read, tells how a girl steals the book "The Last Human Stranger". Hans is commissioned. He is coming back. A plane crashes near the city, the pilot is dead. Death sees Liesel.

The girl sees Max in the column of Jews. She walks beside him. Both are beaten. Liesel spends 3 days in bed and then tells Rudy everything.

The Book Thief

Frau Hermann, the governor's wife, gives the girl a book without words to be written by Liesel herself. As narrated in the summary of The Book Thief by M. Zuzak, the girl regularly fills it in the basement, calling her story The Book Thief, thanks to whichremains alive during the bombing, which kills almost the entire population of Himmel Strasse.

A girl says goodbye to her dead mom, dad and Rudy. The girl's book goes to Death.

Frau Herman takes Liesel to her place. In the fall of 1945, Max finds her.

From the summary of The Book Thief, you can learn that, having lived a long happy life, Liesel dies. Death gives her her book.