Summary

warning: IF YOU ARE GOING TO READ THIS BOOK LIKE IT SAYS TO ON THE HOME PAGE, DO NOT READ THIS PLOT/SUMMARY COMPLETELY! BIG SPOILER ALERT! The Book Thief set in during and WWII Germany. The story is told from the of view of Death, who takes your soul once you die. One of the few pleasures he has is in the story of the book thief, Liesel Meminger, whom he encounters three times. The book begins when she and her brother are forced to leave their mother, for the Hubermanns, a foster family. However, on the way to the small town outside Munich where the Hubermanns live, Liesel's six-year-old brother dies after getting sick. Death first encounters Liesel as the gravediggers are burying her brother, and notes that Liesel steals the younger gravedigger's handbook, despite her inability to read. She later arrives at the Hubermanns', Rosa and Hans, who treat her well, despite Rosa's infamous swearing. Liesel then meets Rudy Steiner, a neighbor who later becomes her best friend. Rudy, a local troublemaker and ladies' man, is well known for his impersonation of the American athlete Jesse Owens and his love for Liesel. And eventually Hans Hubermann decides to take in a Jewish refugee, Max Vandenburg, because Max's father saved Hans' life during WWI, an event which lead him to question the morality of the Jewish persecution (and left him in possession of Max's deceased father's accordion, a symbol of joy and remembrance throughout the novel). Max becomes Liesel's close friend, and he chronicles the experience in a series of sketches, as well as two books for Liesel. However, because Hans helped another Jew as he was being marched to a nearby camp, Max is forced to leave due to fear that the Hubermanns' will be searched by the SS. WWII is creeping closer to Himmel Street though, bringing death to the area. Hans survives his brief draft into the army, but one soldier, the son of one of Liesel's neighbors, commits suicide because he feels responsible for his brother's death in battle. Also, an Allied plane crashes just outside the town, and Liesel witnesses the pilot die (the second time Death sees Liesel). The threat of an air raid increases by the day, and during drills the neighborhood gathers in basements of "adequate depth" for protection. Here, Liesel becomes more aware of the power of words, as she reads to her neighbors and family to calm them. However, the alarms are too late one time, and all the citizens of Himmel Street are killed in a late night bombing--except for Liesel. She survives because she is editing her life story in the Hubermann's basement at the time. Liesel is overcome by grief at the deaths of her family and friends, and loss of the only happiness she had ever known. This is her third encounter with Death, who picks up her discarded autobiography, bringing him new perspective on the life of this strange girl. Miraculously, Max survives the camps and is reunited with Liesel several years later. The story ends with Liesel's death as an old woman, living with her family in Sydney, Australia. Death questions her about her life, showing her the long discarded autobiography, and reveals that, "I am haunted by humans," which is very ironic seeing that most people are afraid of Death, not the other way around.