★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An interesting way to write about the atrocities of war and the holocaust — from the perspective of Death.
We follow the story of little Liesel whose five-year-old brother dies on a train in the opening pages, only to be dumped off herself at a foster home by her poor, sick mother. We expect mistreatment, but her foster parents are kind hearted saints who hide a Jew in their basement and suffer through the consequences of doing that. Lots of side stories that support a message that humans in power are mostly awful, and bravery is rare and endearing, and usually punished harshly.
Death as narrator provided an omniscient narrator with an attitude and a heart. The book ends with this haunting quote:
“I am haunted by humans.”
Themes
- Fatherhood
- Holocaust / Anti-Semitism
- Despair
Favorite Highlights
All told, she owned fourteen books, but she saw her story as being made up predominantly of ten of them. Of those ten, six were stolen, one showed up at the kitchen table, two were made for her by a hidden Jew, and one was delivered by a soft, yellow-dressed afternoon.
I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.
Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew.
His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do – the best ones. The ones who rise up and say “I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.” Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.