The Book Thief

finishing I am writing this ten years after The Book Thief was published, and as I said in the introduction, finishing a book can never be taken for granted. I won’t say that I said goodbye to the characters. I did my best and I was relieved and exhausted and had nothing left to give. Some of those characters had fought their way back into the book. Some had been there all along. Some bullied their way through, swearing and cursing, but generous to the end. Of course, many of them broke my heart, despite my knowing I held their fate in my hands, which made it even harder. Before publication, there’s always a moment when you suddenly understand that if you keep working on the book, you’re going to start hurting it. You might be making things more correct, but never more right. I couldn’t write The Book Thief again now, and I’m honestly not sure I’d want to. I do look back with a few regrets, but I also know it was the best I could do. It gave me my happiest moment of writing a book’s final words, when somehow you just know— At that exact moment, you feel like you’re the only person awake in the world. Or, at least, the only one who just finished writing a book. Lastly, to all the readers out there who’ve given this book its own life of sorts, what can I say but thank you. Thanks for handing it to your families and friends, and for giving it as much love as I did. You’ve made all the difference. Best always, Sydney, March 2016





IN HIS OWN WORDS A CONVERSATION WITH MARKUS ZUSAK

Q: What inspired you to write about a hungry, illiterate girl who has such a desire to read that she steals books? A: I think it’s just working on a book over and over again. I heard stories of cities on fire, teenagers who were whipped for giving starving Jewish people bread on their way to concentration camps, and people huddled in bomb shelters …. But I also had a story about a book thief set in my hometown of Sydney I just brought the two ideas together and realized the importance of words in Nazi Germany. I thought of Hitler destroying people with words, and now I had a girl who was stealing them back, as she read books with the young Jewish man in her basement and calmed people down in the bomb shelters. She writes her own story—and it’s a beautiful story—through the ugliness of the world that surrounds her. Q: There are many novels set during the Holocaust, but The Book Thief offers a different perspective. What do you most want teenage readers to understand about Liesel’s story and this dark period in our world’s history? A: I honestly just hope that they’ll never forget the characters. This is the first time I’ve ever missed characters that I’ve written— especially Liesel and Rudy. I also hope that readers of any age will see another side of Nazi Germany, where certain people did hide their Jewish friends to save their lives (at the risk of their own). I wanted them to see people who were unwilling to fly the Nazi flag, and boys and girls who thought the Hitler Youth was boring and ridiculous. If nothing else, there’s another side that lives beneath the propaganda reels that are still so effective decades later. Those were the pockets I was interested in. Q: Liesel has an uncanny understanding of people and an ability to befriend those who most need companionship. Who do you think is Liesel’s most unforgettable friend?

A: For me it’s Rudy, but a lot of people will tell me it’s Hans Hubermann, Max, the mayor’s wife, or even Rosa Hubermann. Rudy is just my favorite character. From the moment he painted himself black and became Jesse Owens, he was my favorite. Liesel kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips was probably the most devastating part of the book for me to write…. I was a mess. On the other hand, I’m also drawn to all of the relationships Liesel forms, even her reading with Frau Holtzapfel, and the return of her son. Even Ludwig Schmeikl—the boy she beats up on the playground and reconciles with at the book-burning … I think the relationship with Rosa is the most unexpected, though. The moment when she sees Rosa with the accordion strapped to her (when Hans is sent to the war) is when she realizes exactly how much love her foster mother is capable of. Q: Your use of figurative language seems natural and effortless. Is this something that you have to work to develop, or is it innately a part of your writing style? A: I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It’s probably what I love most about writing—that words can be used in a way that’s like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They’re the best moments in a day of writing—when an image appears that you didn’t know would be there when you started work in the morning. At other stages, it takes time. It took three years to write this book, and some images remained from start to finish, but others were considered and reconsidered dozens of times, if not more. Often, to keep the workday flowing, I’ll continue writing the story and then come back later to develop an image that hasn’t worked from the outset. I might even take it out completely. Q: There are numerous details about the setting of the book. Did you have to do extensive research? How long did it take you to prepare for writing this novel?

A: Research isn’t my strong point—I have to be absolutely honest about that. The whole time I was researching, I was thinking, “Come on, hurry up, will you? Get home and start writing….” To a certain extent, the world of Molching was given to me. It was in my mind, dormant from childhood, on account of all the stories I was told by my parents. In terms of getting the details right, that was both a hindrance and a huge advantage. History gave this story its bombings, towns, and people. Getting them in the right time and place in the book was more difficult than people might imagine— but it also gave me a framework to place my story on. I really did the research in phases, before, during, and after I’d finished the manuscript. It wasn’t until the end of the writing that I went to Munich to check all of my facts, especially little things, like the seasonal habits of apple trees! (Liesel and Rudy’s apple-stealing needed to occur in the right month.) I guess the little things mean a lot. When they add up, hopefully they make the book complete.

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