The Book Thief (Zusak)
Short summary
Nazi Germany, 1939-1943. Nine-year-old Liesel Meminger arrived on Himmel Street in the town of Molching after her younger brother died during their journey to foster parents. At his burial, she stole her first book, 'The Grave Digger's Handbook.' Her foster father, Hans Hubermann, a kind accordion player, taught her to read using this book during midnight lessons. Her foster mother, Rosa, was harsh but caring beneath her rough exterior.
Liesel befriended Rudy Steiner, a neighbor boy who constantly asked her for a kiss. She stole her second book from a Nazi book burning on Hitler's birthday, witnessed by the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, who later invited Liesel into her magnificent library. In 1940, a Jewish man named Max Vandenburg arrived at the Hubermanns' home, seeking refuge. Hans was fulfilling a promise to Max's father, who had saved his life in World War I. The family hid Max in their basement despite the enormous danger.
Liesel and Max bonded over their shared nightmares and love of words. Max created a book for her called 'The Standover Man.' When Hans publicly gave bread to a Jewish prisoner being marched to Dachau, he was whipped and later drafted into the German army as punishment. Max fled to protect the family. Hans survived the war due to a broken leg and returned home. Liesel continued stealing books and reading to neighbors during air raids.
In 1943, Liesel saw Max among marching prisoners and ran to him, reciting passages from his book before soldiers separated them. She began writing her own story in the basement. When bombs fell on Himmel Street, Liesel survived because she was writing underground. Everyone else died, including Rudy.
She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Liesel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret.
Death, the narrator, revealed that Max survived the war and reunited with Liesel. She lived to old age in Sydney, surrounded by family, before Death finally claimed her soul.
Detailed summary by parts
Part subtitles are editorial.
Prologue. Death introduces itself and three encounters with the book thief
The story opened with an unusual narrator introducing itself as an entity that collected human souls. This narrator explained its fascination with colors and its need for distraction from the horrors of its work. It promised to share the story of a young girl it encountered three times during World War II—beside a railway line where a boy died, at a plane crash site, and amid the ruins of a bombed German town.
Part 1. Liesels arrival on Himmel Street; learning to read with Hans
In January 1939, a nine-year-old girl traveled by train with her mother and younger brother toward the German town of Molching. During the journey, her brother died. At his burial in the snow, the girl stole her first book from the graveside—a manual dropped by an apprentice grave digger. This book, though she could not yet read it, became her most treasured possession.
The girl arrived on Himmel Street in Molching, where her foster parents awaited her. Her mother, too poor and politically compromised as a communist, had been forced to give her up. The foster father was a tall, silver-eyed man who played the accordion and worked as a painter. His wife was a short, harsh-tongued woman who took in washing to supplement their meager income.
The girl struggled to adjust to her new life. She suffered nightmares about her brother's death and wet the bed frequently. Her foster father discovered the stolen book under her mattress and began teaching her to read during midnight sessions in the basement. He used sandpaper letters and painted words on the wall, patiently guiding her through the alphabet and simple words. These lessons forged a deep bond between them.
On Himmel Street, the girl befriended a boy with lemon-colored hair who lived next door. He was athletic and mischievous, constantly asking her for a kiss, which she always refused. Together they played soccer, stole apples from orchards, and explored their neighborhood, observing the grim realities of Nazi Germany.
The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.
At school, the girl was humiliated when she could not read during a test. Her classmates taunted her, and she erupted in violence, beating one boy severely. This earned her a harsh punishment, but her friend stood by her silently, offering comfort through his presence.
Part 2. The book burning on Hitlers birthday and Liesels second theft
The girl's foster father bought her two books for Christmas using his tobacco rations, bringing her great joy. She helped her foster mother deliver laundry to wealthy clients, including the mayor's house. Meanwhile, she wrote letters to her biological mother but received no reply. When she confronted her foster parents, they revealed her mother was likely dead or imprisoned for being a communist.
On Hitler's birthday in April 1940, the town held a celebration with a massive bonfire where banned books were burned. The girl attended with her foster parents and the Hitler Youth. During the ceremony, her foster father's son, a fervent Nazi, confronted him for not joining the Party, calling him a coward before storming out. After the bonfire, the girl's foster father revealed that the Führer had likely taken her mother. When she expressed hatred for Hitler, he slapped her and warned her never to say such things aloud.
As they walked home, the girl noticed a book that had survived the flames. While her foster father talked with a neighbor, she retrieved it from the smoldering pile, hiding it under her shirt despite the heat burning her ribs. A figure in a window witnessed her theft—the mayor's wife, who said nothing.
Part 3. The mayors library and Max Vandenburgs journey to Molching
During a laundry delivery to the mayor's house, the mayor's wife invited the girl inside and showed her an enormous library filled with books. The woman, silent and sorrowful, allowed her to read there. The girl began visiting regularly, reading books and helping herself to the mayor's wife's collection.
Meanwhile, in Stuttgart, a young Jewish man hid in a dark storage room, starving and terrified. A friend brought him false identity papers, a map, a ticket, and a copy of a certain political book that would serve as camouflage. The Jewish man shaved his beard, transformed his appearance, and boarded a train to Molching, clutching the book that might save his life. He carried an address given to him by his mother—the home of a man who owed his father a debt.
The girl and her friend continued their petty thefts, stealing fruit from farms to supplement their meager rations. They joined a gang of young thieves led by a cruel boy who bullied and humiliated them. Life in wartime Germany grew increasingly difficult as food became scarcer and the war intensified.
Part 4. Max arrives and hides in the Hubermanns basement
In November 1940, the Jewish man arrived at the girl's home on Himmel Street. Her foster father welcomed him, fulfilling a promise made long ago. During World War I, the foster father had survived because a Jewish soldier named Erik Vandenburg volunteered him for a safer assignment, then died in his place. The Jewish man was Erik's son, and the foster father had vowed to help the Vandenburg family if they ever needed him.
The family hid the Jewish man in their basement, where he would remain for over a year. The foster father sternly warned the girl never to speak of their secret guest to anyone—the consequences would be death for all of them. The girl and the Jewish man formed a bond over their shared nightmares and love of words. He had been a fist-fighter before going into hiding, and he told her stories of his past.
The Jewish man created a gift for the girl by painting over the pages of the political book that had helped him reach safety. He wrote and illustrated his own story on the whitewashed pages, creating a thirteen-page book about a girl who stood over him when he first arrived. He gave it to her, and she treasured it, reading it repeatedly.
Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his thereness.
Part 5. Air raids, Liesels reading, and stealing books from the mayors library
The girl and her friend attempted to steal food from the mayor's house by climbing through a window. She successfully took another book from the library. Her friend jumped into the freezing river to retrieve the book when it was thrown there by a bully, asking once again for a kiss as his reward. She refused, though she cared for him deeply.
Air raids became frequent, and the neighborhood gathered in a deep basement for shelter. The Jewish man could not join them and remained hidden in the girl's basement, alone and terrified. During one raid, the girl began reading aloud to calm the frightened people in the shelter. Her voice and the story distracted them from the bombs falling above. This became her role during subsequent raids—she was the reader who brought comfort in darkness.
The Jewish man fell gravely ill after the girl and her foster father built a snowman in the cold basement to cheer him. He developed pneumonia and lay unconscious for days. The girl brought him gifts and read to him constantly, desperate for him to wake. The narrator attempted to take his soul but was somehow rebuffed. Eventually, the Jewish man recovered, though the family knew the danger was far from over.
Nazi officials came to inspect basements for air raid suitability. The girl feigned injury to warn her family, and they barely had time to hide the Jewish man behind a sheet. The inspector found their basement unsuitable and left, unknowingly sparing the hidden man's life. The mayor's wife left a dictionary for the girl to steal, revealing she had known about the thefts all along and approved of them.
Part 6. Maxs grave illness and narrow escape from discovery
The narrator reflected on the overwhelming work of 1942, describing the countless souls collected from battlefields and concentration camps. The war intensified, and the narrator grew weary from the endless task of gathering the dead. Meanwhile, the girl continued her routine of reading to the Jewish man, bringing him newspapers, and describing the weather outside since he could no longer see the sky.
The Jewish man painted scenes on the basement walls and created another book for the girl, writing his stories on the painted-over pages of the political book. He fantasized about fighting the Führer in a boxing match, training in the basement for his imaginary battles. The family painted over the pages together, transforming hate into art.
The mayor's wife dismissed the girl from her laundry deliveries due to wartime cutbacks. Enraged, the girl verbally assaulted her, then confessed to her foster mother, who surprisingly offered comfort. The girl's foster father also reassured her, telling her she was not going to hell for her outburst.
Part 7. Hans helps a Jewish prisoner and Max must leave
The girl's foster father found work painting windows black for air raid protection, often bringing her along. They shared champagne and accordion music, experiencing a brief period of happiness. The girl's friend won races at a Hitler Youth carnival but deliberately false-started in the final race, an act of quiet rebellion.
Jewish prisoners were marched through Molching toward Dachau. The girl's foster father, witnessing an elderly Jewish man collapse, gave him a piece of bread. A soldier whipped both the Jewish man and the foster father brutally. This act of compassion had devastating consequences—the foster father realized he had endangered the Jewish man hiding in his basement. That night, the hidden man left Himmel Street, leaving only a note thanking the family for their kindness.
The foster father waited anxiously for the Gestapo to arrest him, but weeks passed. When officials finally arrived, they came not for him but for the girl's friend, attempting to recruit the athletic boy for an elite Nazi school. His father desperately refused. Shortly after, both the foster father and the friend's father received draft notices—punishment for their defiance of the regime.
Part 8. Hans and Alex Steiner drafted; wartime hardships continue
The girl's foster father was assigned to an Air Raid Special Unit—a squad that collected bodies after bombings. He experienced horrific scenes of destruction and death. The girl struggled with the absence of her foster father, her friend's father, and the Jewish man. She and her friend daringly distributed bread to Jewish prisoners during another march, hoping to find the Jewish man among them, but he was not there.
During an air raid, the girl's foster mother gave her the Jewish man's hidden sketchbook, which contained a fable he had written about a girl who defied the Führer by protecting a tree made from a tear of friendship. The girl realized the story was about her and the power of words to resist tyranny.
Part 9. Hans returns home; Michaels suicide; Liesel sees Max in the parade
The girl's foster father returned home in early 1943 after breaking his leg in a truck accident that killed another soldier. A neighbor's son, traumatized by the war and guilt over his brother's death, committed suicide. The girl witnessed another parade of Jewish prisoners and saw the hidden man among them. She pushed through the crowd to reach him, reciting passages from his book. Soldiers whipped them both, and her friend pulled her away as the prisoners disappeared down the road.
Part 10. Liesel writes her story and the bombing of Himmel Street
Overwhelmed by war's horrors, the girl destroyed a book in the mayor's wife's library and left an apology. Three days later, the mayor's wife gave her a blank book, encouraging her to write her own story. The girl began writing in the basement, chronicling her life from her brother's death to the present. She wrote about her foster parents, her friend, the Jewish man, and the power of words to both harm and heal.
I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.
On the night she finished her book, bombs fell on Himmel Street. The girl survived only because she was in the basement writing. Everyone else died—her foster parents, her friend, his family, and most of the neighbors. Rescuers pulled her from the rubble. She found her friend's body and finally gave him the kiss he had always wanted. She discovered her foster parents dead in their bed and was led away, clutching her completed manuscript.
Epilogue. Death returns Liesels book years later; her reunion with Max
The mayor's wife took in the girl after the bombing. She endured the funerals and grief. Her friend's father returned from the war, guilt-ridden that he had survived while his son died. In October 1945, the Jewish man appeared at the tailor shop, having survived the concentration camps. They embraced and wept together.
Many years later, the narrator met the girl again—now an old woman dying peacefully in Sydney, surrounded by her family. The narrator returned her book, which it had kept all those years. She read it with astonishment and asked if the narrator understood it.
I am haunted by humans.