The Book Thief

"I'm haunted by humans."

This simple yet chilling line by a personified character, 'Death' in "The Book Thief" captures the heart of the story.

This single line struck a chord and made me wonder about this ruthless narrator and the subjugation of humans, to scare someonething as invincible as Death. For some, 'haunted' might be an overstatement but for those who have suffered at the hands of humans, know, it's not — this statement contradicts humanity.

'Death' claims that it had a lot of work in mid 1900s especially during Nazi Germany and World War II which explains over 80 million deaths.

The story is set against the background of this significant historical event and revolves around how it affected people living in a fictional poor town in Germany.

The book mentions the Polish invasion, the Holocaust, Stalingrad, and Hitler's political campaigns against Jews. I won't go into those details. I see one word,

War.

The book tells us how those events affected common people. I wouldn't have been able to read it earlier this year because it was an emotional read. The ongoing war, the uncertain future, the constant lingering fear of losing someone you love, sirens, bombs, trips to basements and bunkers in the middle of the night, coming out to check who died in today's airstrike...

This is what War is. There are no victories. Sure, the leaders capture that desired piece of land, but the innocent minds are crippled forever.

"I've seen so many young men, over the years, who think they are running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me."

Deaths.

No victories but only deaths — on both sides.

However.

No matter, how dark the times become, humans try to hold onto the tendrils of hope.

Hope.

In this story, amongst all the ugliness, there was beauty in the form of hope. Leisel (a resident of that God-forsaken town) read to the people during air raids because it helped them to distract, to forget, to defy death in those moments. Her words were a shield against the chaos that raged outside.

"I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugliness and their beauty, and I wonder how the same can be both."

Perhaps, Death isn't scared of horrors that humans bring but by the dual nature of humanity, the reason behind both destruction and redemption. To be human means, to love, to lose, to hope — maybe it's our stubborn will to live that haunts it the most.

...

Recommended.

P.S. This informative and emotional work of historical fiction taught me some curse words in German too. Lol

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^{All the quoted text is from the book and is voiced by the grim narrator — Death.}