*THE BOOK THIEF* by Zuzak

Australian-born Markus Zusak grew up sitting at the kitchen table, glued to his chair, listening to his mother's tales of her childhood in Nazi Germany. Such tales would later serve as a springboard for his unusual novel about the power of words to both destroy and comfort. A daring work in the adventurous spirit of The Shadow of the Wind, this novel has a bizarre narrator: Death. Drawn into a tense and dangerous historical era, readers discover how Liesel Meminger first learns to read and is transformed into the "book thief," stealing books before they can be burned by the Nazis or confiscated from personal libraries. When her family decides to hide a Jew in the basement, Liesel holds out hope to him in the form of her two most precious commodities: words and stories

I really hesitated reading this book since it was over 500 pages, and while that normally is not a problem for me since I like lengthy novels, with this book it was near impossible. It sagged big-time in the middle and could have been much shorter. With the topic being as sad and difficult to read as it was, reading a book this size with continuing dark sadness was impossible, for me at least.