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September 11, 2008

The Book Thief



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.