The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Simply put, this is a masterpiece. A big, overarching tale including many characters and, well, WWII, but presented in an intimate and absorbingly detailed way. I both read it (there are many visual elements) and listened to the amazing audio adaptation. Even though the narrator (Death himself) lets you know early on what's going to happen--"I'm spoiling the ending," he says somewhere in the middle--I found myself weeping as that ending came. A beautiful, cathartic work. A celebration of the power of words, which if you think about it, is everything.