The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Discussion Questions
1. What was the author’s purpose behind choosing Death as the omniscient narrator of the novel? Is Death a trustworthy narrator? How does Death see things that a human narrator might not? What are Death’s feelings for each victim? Why is Death interested in Liesel’s story?
2. What is ironic about Liesel’s obsession with stealing books? Discuss other uses of irony in the novel.
3. Why does Liesel steal The Grave Digger’s Handbook? What is significant about the titles of the books she steals (The Shoulder Shrug, The Whistler, The Last Human Stranger, and the Duden Dictionary)? What does the act of book thievery teach her about life and death? Explain Rudy’s reaction when he discovers that Liesel is a book thief. How does stealing books from the mayor’s house lead to a friendship with the mayor’s wife?
4. In the opening of the book when Liesel steals her first book, this event can be thought of as the first of many turning points for her. What are some of the others? Talk about each major character and what their turning points are, as well as turning points for the community as a whole.
5. Who has power in this book? How does Liesel gain power, and how does Max? Toward the end of the novel Liesel remarks to herself that words give power. How so?
6. Liesel believes that Hans Hubermann’s eyes show kindness, and from the beginning she feels closer to him than to Rosa Hubermann. How does Hans gain Liesel’s love and trust? Is Liesel a substitute for Hans’s children, who have strayed from the family? Why is it so difficult for Rosa to demonstrate warmth toward Liesel? How has Liesel’s relationship with Rosa changed by the end of the novel?
7. Liesel feels abandoned by her mother and her brother. How does she equate love with abandonment? At what point does she understand why she was abandoned by her mother? Who else abandons Liesel in the novel and why?
8. What role does guilt play in the novel? Hans Hubermann’s life was spared in France during World War I while Erik Vandenburg’s life was taken. Why does Hans feels guilty about Erik’s death? How does Hans channels his guilt into helping others? Explain Max Vandenburg’s thought, “Living was living. The price was guilt and shame.” (p. 208). Why does he feel guilt and shame?
9. From Hans to Liesel to the mayor’s wife, how do the characters in The Book Thief deal with their pasts? What role do memory and punishment play?
10. Discuss the meaning of Max painting over Mein Kampf. What is he able to express by doing this and by drawing over it, that he cannot convey in person?
11. Compare and contrast the lives of Liesel and Max. How does Max’s life give Liesel purpose? At what point do Liesel and Max become friends? What is the significance of “The Standover Man,” the book Max gives Liesel for her birthday?
12. Death says that Liesel was a girl “with a mountain to climb.” (p. 86). What is her mountain? Who are her climbing partners? What is her greatest obstacle? At what point does she reach the summit of her mountain? Describe her descent. What does she discover at the foot of her mountain?
13. Hans Junior, a Nazi soldier, calls his father a coward because he doesn’t belong to the Nazi Party and believes that you are either for Hitler or against him. How do the various members of the Hubermann household demonstrate courage throughout the novel? The other characters? What choices do characters make about groups they will belong to? What groups do they belong to without choice? What are the consequences?
14. How does Liesel’s friendship with Rudy change and grow? Does she love him in the way he loves her, or is it a child’s love? Do you think he reminds her of her brother? Death says that Rudy doesn’t offer his friendship “for free.” (p. 51) and also says, “The only thing worse than a boy who hates you [is] a boy who loves you.” (p. 52). Why is it difficult for Liesel to love Rudy? At the end of the novel, why does Liesel tells Mr. Steiner that she kissed Rudy’s dead body?
15. How does Zusak use the literary device of foreshadowing to pull the reader into the story?
16. When encountering Liesel at the end of her long life, Death would like to tell her about beauty and brutality, but says those are things that she has lived. How does her life represent beauty in the wake of brutality? How does Zusak’s poetic writing style enhances the beauty of Liesel’s story?
17. Death states, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.” (p. 491). What is ugly and beautiful about Liesel, Rosa and Hans Hubermann, Max Vandenburg, Rudy Steiner, and Mrs. Hermann? Why is Death haunted by humans?
18. Knowing that Liesel is called a “thief,” how does the book complicate our ideas of justice and judgment? Which characters do you view as just/unjust or brave/cowardly, and why? Which events or details most color your perceptions of these characters?
19. Name some acts of resistance in the book, from large to small. What does the author intend with his inclusion of these acts?
About the author
Markus Zusak, born in 1975 in Sydney, Australia, grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
In addition to The Book Thief, he is the author of four previous books for young adults: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger. He received the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award in 2003, the Kathleen Mitchell Award in 2006, and the Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature in 2006 and 2007.