Book Thief by Markus Zusak ~ March Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  everyone is welcome to join in.

 

The Book Thief -  March Bookclub Online
Everyone is invited to join in!  

"Fortunately, this book isn't about Death; it's about death, and so much else."   "Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers. "The Book Thief" was published for adults in Zusak's native Australia, and I strongly suspect it was written for adults. Many teenagers will find the story too slow to get going, which is a fair criticism. But it's the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, "The Book Thief" offers us a believable, hard-won hope. The Book Thief is a complicated story of survival that will encourage its readers to think." (Bookmarks Magazine) "How can a tale told by Death be mistaken for young-adult storytelling? Easily: because this book's narrator is sorry for what he has to do. The youthful sensibility of "The Book Thief" also contributes to a wider innocence. While it is set in Germany during World War II and is not immune to bloodshed, most of this story is figurative: it unfolds as symbolic or metaphorical abstraction. "The Book Thief" will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that." (New York Times)

Discussion Schedule: March 1-2 ~ Prologue March 3-7 ~ Part I & II (the gravedigger's handbook; the shoulder shrug) March 8-14 ~ Part III & IV  (mein kampf; the standover man)      March 15-21 ~ Part V & VI (the whistler; the dream carrier)                    March 22-28 ~ Part VII & VIII (complete duden dictionary; the word shaker)   March 29-April 4 ~ Part IX & X (the last human stranger; the book thief)

Some Questions for Your Consideration

March 22-28 ~ Part VII & VIII  (complete duden dictionary; the word shaker)

1. Summer of 1942.  Why does Liesel regard the days spent with Hans painting blackout blinds as "the best of times"?    Do you remember blackout shades and blinds?
  
2.  Why do you think Rudy false-started on purpose to disqualify himself from earning the fourth medal he wanted more than anything?

3. Why does Ilsa Hermann put the Duden dictionalry in her window for Liesel to steal?  Was it a gift? Are you familiar with the Duden Dictionary?  

4. "The stars set fire to his eyes but not before he saw the shadow of Hitler coming towards the basement on Himmel St." Why did Max risk everything to leave the basement the night of the first raid?

5. What was the real reason for the long forced walk to Dachau?  What does this tell  us of the mindset of the young  German soldiers?

6. Why did Hans to offer bread to the old man who was obviously dying?   Was his  offer of bread for naught?  Who calls him an "idiot" for doing this?  Does Liesel blame him for Max's departure?    

7.  What was the significanace of the dominoes game in the Steiners' living room?  Do you know why dominoes are called "bones"?

8. Hans leaves his accordion in Liesel's care   Do you believe he will come back to keep his promise to play it again?  

9. Why does Rudy tempt fate by offering the Jews bread as they are marched through town to Dachau?  Why include Liesel?

10.  What is a  "word shaker"? What is the moral of the fable or fairytale Max writes about? Does Liesel know where Max is now?
    

Relevant Links:
Readers' Guide Questions: Prologue; Parts I - IV ;   A Brief History of German Rule;   Dachau;   Mein Kampf;   The Book Thief Metaphors ~ Our Favorite Zusak expressions;
  
  

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP & Andy

[straudetwo]

PatH,  I greatly appreciate your comments about Kurt Vonnegut.  He addressed moral and social issues in his writings, and they resonated with me.  I read everything he published, beginning with Player Piano.  I discovered it ten years after he wrote it.   I admired him for his candor and the courage of his convictions.

JoanP, good news - I got a copy of the book   :)And none too soon. But I haven't started yet.
It's been a busy day, and the grands are here overnight.

Quick question:  Could you please tell me in where I can find the references to Jews being marched off ?
Thanks in advance.

[joangrimes]

I did not know that Vonnegut was  a survivor of the Dresden Horror either.   I did not know for  a long time that Slaughter House Five had anything to do witH the Dresden Horror.  I am learning so much from this discussion.  I have had so much family joy lately that I have not been able to keep my mind on the discussion.  I have been floating around on my cloud of joy over two of my granddaughters and not concentrating on discussing a book. Joan Grimes

[PatH]

I have had so much family joy lately that I have not been able to keep my mind on the discussion.  I have been floating around on my cloud of joy over two of my granddaughters and not concentrating on discussing a book. Joan Grimes

That explains the shining cloud I saw zooming across the sky yesterday. 
It's good of you to share your joy with us.

[countrymm]

Just read in the New York Times that Carol Goodman has a new book titled Arcadia Falls.  The book sounds nothing like Night Villa. I ordered the free first chapter for my Kindle, although this is not my favorite type of story.

From Publishers Weekly
Goodman (The Night Villa) delivers the goods her fans expect in this atmospheric and fast-moving gothic story: buried secrets, supernatural elements, and a creepy setting. Following the death of her husband, Meg Rosenthal accepts a job teaching at an upstate New York boarding school and moves there with her teenage daughter, Sally. The school, Arcadia Falls, also happens to be central to her thesis, which focuses on the two female coauthors of fairy tales: Vera Beecher, who founded the school, and her friend Lily Eberhardt, who died mysteriously in 1947. While the campus is bucolic, school life proves anything but—Meg thinks she sees ghosts and Arcadia's brightest and most ambitious student, Isabel Cheney, is found dead in a ravine. Feeling Sally drifting further from her each day, Meg finds refuge in Lily's preserved diary and begins to unravel the secrets behind Isabel's death. Goodman doesn't do anything new, but her storytelling is as solid as ever, and the book is reliably entertaining. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

[JoanP]

Guten Morgen!

A lovely day, here in Arlington - ( not a swastika in sight!)  I'm going to agree with PatH about Max's drawing - " an extremely bitter comment on what Hitler is doing and his wonderful new world."  I can't imagine that spending all this time in the dark basement is not getting to him, making him extremely bitter. What can he possibly hope for?  This collection of random thoughts is like a diary, isn't it?

To balance the reference to the lovely day drawing, we get a glimpse into Death's own diary at the end of Part VI - Death is expressing his need for distraction as he "picks though the broken bodies and dead, sweet hearts from the rubble of Mauthausen..
 - Describes going above the gray clouds for distraction and fresh air, only to find that the sun was blond and the endless atmosphere a giant blue eye.
Very similar images, no? 

Ella, should the reader  separate the two facets of the book?  The surreal from the real?  My own answer would be a definite no.  I would let the surreal character of Death emphasize the very real character of death and destruction.  Zusak tells us that his mother lived in Molching/Olching as a child during the war.  Many of the stories that she told the author as she was growing up, were real memories - from the eyes of the child.  To tell his story, Zusak needed a narrator - a grown up narrator, to describe what was happening in the world outside of Himmel St. while the children played - and gradually grew into the reality of their world.  What better voice to tell of war than death?  I'd say, let  the two facets work together, Ella.  They really can't be separated. IMHO

Traudee, tomorrow we will begin to discuss Parts VII and VIII.  It is in Part VII that Liesel and Hans witness the first forced march through their town to Dachau.  It is good that you now have this book for a number of reasons.

Let's spend today sharing thoughts on Parts V and VI.  There was a line that made me catch my breath - it was so real, so familiar:

As Max describes his dream to Liesel,  "he paused for a dozen silent sentences"  before confessing  that he's afraid to fall asleep again.   I love Zusak's minimalism.  In few words, he conveys so much!


-JoanG, tell about the second granddaughter's happy news!
-Countrymm, I'm sure the folks in the Library would like to hear of Carol Goodman's new book.

[countrymm]

Science fiction.  I'm interested in the appeal of Science fiction.  I've tried reading it but couldn't get interested, although I have friends who love it.  Why do you enjoy it and how should one approach reading it? Maybe I'll give it a try.

I'm thinking that Liesel will have "identity issues" after the war.  Here she is a young teen. I'm assuming both her biological parents are dead.  She has come to love her foster parents, but what will happen to them?  Will she have any loved ones if she survives the war?  If not, who will she be?  How will she start a new life?  Where will she get strength and suppport?

I'm really enjoying our discussion.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

[ALF43]

Well, I've been away for yesterday but have just finished reading your comments.

Sci-fi is often used very effectively to comment on grim reality.  By taking a different viewpoint, or changing some assumptions, you can skewer our world very nicely.

PatH- I do understand what that is saying but I can not wrap my head around this being such a genre.  This is real- atrocious and genuine!   More non-fiction & historical, than sci-fi, to me.

Countrymm- It is difficult to imagine Liesel making it out alive much less how she will learn to endure these horrors of war.  Adolescence is difficult enough, on its best of days, but what trauma must remail with these kids that actually lived these times.  I sure Traude could testify to this as she once again forces herself to relive the abomination of the Nazi rule.

[joangrimes]

JoanP you resquested -JoanG, tell about the second granddaughter's happy news!
 

Well you don't have to twist my arm to get me to do that.
My Granddaughter, Sophia, who had a birthday on St Patrick's day, has been home schooled all of her life.  She has to attend a school to be able to get a high school diploma. She is an artist.  She draws or paints stories and then animates them.  She has been accepted into the prestigous Alabama School of Fine Arts.  I am so proud of her that I could pop.

Thanks for your comment PatH.
floating on my cloud.  Joan Grimes

[ALF43]

JoanP-

Describes going above the gray clouds for distraction and fresh air, only to find that the sun was blond and the endless atmosphere a giant blue eye

.

You know how much I love the author's usage of colors and this is a perfect example.  The blue represents peace, tranquility, and order.
Blue is a natural color- universal, as it emanates a calming effect.  It is above and beyond the horrors of what is happening below those gray clouds- the color of ash.

The Dream Carrier stolen from the shelf was red, with black writing on the spine.  This was significant to me - feeling the reddness of aggression, war and danger.  
Black-the  signature in shape of a swastika- evil!

[JoanP]

Joan, that's great news!  Oh to have not one but two on their chosen paths!  It doesn't always work like that!  Your family is blessed!  Keep floating...

Andy, what to you think of Zusak's description of the sun as "blond"...not yellow, but BLOND and then the atmosphere as a giant blue EYE.  Blond and blue eyed - floating above the gray clouds of Mauthausen...

[ALF43]

Joan- I could be all wet on this one but -
Blond hair is common in many European peoples, but rare among peoples of non-European origin.  If he said yellow hair it would have the connotation that it were "dyed" blonde- unnatural.  Lest we rmember Hitler was  lloking for true Aryans.

The meaning of the blue I described above.

[Laura]

Countrymm said:  We know the author uses a lot of foreshadowing, usually via the character Death.  Some of you have been bothered by Death revealing facts about the future.  Why do you think Zusak uses foreshadowing?   Is it to pull the reader into the book?

Death, personified, is telling the readers the story.  As anyone does when telling a story, Death jumps ahead a bit and then goes back and explains.  I think this keeps the book moving along, with the reader enticed by little tidbits.  I also think it makes our narrator seem more human.  Humans couldn’t possibly tell a story this long, all in order, in just the right way.  Death has fits and starts and uses some unusual things not normally found in novels, like lists and drawings, but uses them effectively conveying his personality and humanity.

[straudetwo]

Andy, as I said before, Hitler was the personification of evil.  He tarnished everything he touched.
He appropriated and distorted many things (customs, istitutions etc.)  to serve his own purposes, among them the swastika.

The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit and  identifies  an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles, either right- or left-facing.  Archeological evidence shows that swastika-shaped ornaments were used in the Neolithic period.  The emblem  is still widely used in Indian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The swastika was commonly used over much of the world without stigma,  until it became stigmatized in the Western world due to its iconic usage in Nazi Germany. It is outlawed in Germany.

JoanG, congratulations on the wonderful news about your granddaughter Sophie, the artist.  My apologies for not congratulating you earlier when another granddaughter was accepted at medical school. Thank you for sharing. And yes, we are indeed entitled to bask in the warm glow of reflection when our children and grandchildren do us proud.

[PatH]

Death has just taken the souls of a group of French Jews.  He feels desolate, and looking up, sees a grey, rainy sky.  He feels that above this is a blond sun and a giant blue eye.  This isn't comforting it's sinister--a huge Aryan face looking down at the slaughter.

[straudetwo]

Allow me to mention a book that is very much in context:  
 The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by noted biographer Mary S. Lovell. Excellent for its background information.
We discussed it here in 2003.

Two of the six Mitford sisters were in Hitler's inner circle:  
Diana, whose second husband was Sir Oswald Mosley, the  leader of the British Fascist Union,  
and Unity, who was infatuated with Hitler to the point of obsession.

Another sister, Jessica,  was a Communist.  She moved to the U.S. and became a writer. One of her books was The American Way of Death.

[ALF43]

Traude- how sad that the word swastika which used to mean life and good luck became transferred by Hitler to mean death and hate.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler described the Nazis' new flag: "In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic."

[PatH]

What a struggle Max must be having keeping his humanity.  He's only 24, and before he got here he spent several years in a basement, with little food and less company.  Now he's in another basement, excreting into a bucket, cold, underfed, and sometimes in the dark.  His main human contact is Liesl, uniquely well-fitted to be sympathetic.  She's probably what keeps him sane, but it's no wonder he has waking dreams of fighting the Fuehrer.

Countrymm, I haven't forgotten your question about sci-fi.  I'll answer soon.

[Babi]

 MARCIE, I like your explanation of Max's drawing. I couldn't really fit
"Isn't it a lovely day" into any explanation, but yours makes sense.

COUNTRYMM, I would think MAX would also feel guilty, knowing the danger
he brings to this family. I would think that he would want to leave once 
he was strong enough. What a terrible burden it would be to know you are
personally responsible for the death of people who befriended you.

 PATH, there are some characters we want so much to survive. I think the
author's 'preview' of their deaths lessens the shock and loss. We have
time to accustom ourselves to the idea. I know if Rudy's death had
occurred suddenly, without warning, I would have found it most distressing.

 JOANP, I think your observation about Zusak's writing is so true. His
sympathetic skill is all that makes what happens bearable.

Oh, TRAUDE, I wish I had not read that link. I knew a beautiful and
historical city had been lost with Dresden, but I had no idea of the rest
 of it. I actually feel sick.

[JoanP]

Guten Morgen, Alles!

Grey skies here over the nation's captital this morning!  (I'm sure if we flew above the clouds we'd see the blond sun and big blue-eyed sky.)
I too find it difficult to imagine how Max spends his days without going mad - consumed with a double dose of guilt - for having abandonned his family and for putting Liesel and her family in such danger because they are hiding him. Of course he's bitter at those who have caused him to make these choices.
Today things get really serious as the Gestapo begins to focus on Himmel St. in Parts Seven and Eight.

Laura, I like your concept of Death as a character in this novel.  Hopefully this "character"  will not accompany the Gestapo to Himmel St..
We're told at the onset that the town is preparing for the inevitable in the summer of '42.  That it is not a question of "if" but "when."  Does anyone remember when Death made the observation that Rudy Steiner's life was going to die in two years' time?  What year was that?
 Countrymm, if Liesel does survive, how does she leave behind these memories.  (I'm wondering if Liesel isn't based on Zusak's own mother's experience in this town during the war.)
Liesel regards this period and the time she spends with Hans as "the best of times."  Can we focus on this period today?  Do you think she fully understands the danger?
Babi - I just read your post - I had the same reaction.  I too felt sick reading of the Dresden bombing.  Let's hope that Death does not find such destruction on Himmel St.

[Ella Gibbons]

We never had blackout blinds in America that I remember, but we read about them in England when the bombing started.  In those early years we knew so much about what was happening to people in the Allied countries, but nothing at all about what was happening to the German people; probably we thought them all guilty or tarnished by Hitler.  They were all evil and had caused the war.

I remember reading about Rudy false-starting in that last race but I can't remember why he did that.  Did Liesel ask him and did he answer?

No, JOAN, I don't think Liesel understood the whole danger.  She was so worried about Max when he was sick - is that in this chapter?  I don't have the book.

The Duden Dictionary - here it is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duden

I understand why Liesel finds these days the "best of times" but I am afraid to comment as I have finished the book.  

[JoanP]

Ella, perhaps it was where you were living? Not in a bombing target near a major city?   I grew up in New Jersey, Bruce, my husband in New York.  Both of us remember black out shades...he just told me his mother was a warden.
I was four or five at this time.  I really don't remember the drills where we lived -  by a lake in Northern New Jersey.  BUT I do remember being at my grandmother's house in Newark.  Now, don't laugh, Newark has a bad reputation, but it was once the "queen city" of New Jersey and quite a nice place to live.  

We were all gathered in the dark in her living room during a drill - the sirens had gone off - and everyone was supposed to pull the shades and turn out all the lights ..  There was a rap at the living room window near by the front steps.  It was the warden, who had spotted the glow of the radio tube through the edge of the shade.  He made us turn off the radio. It was explained to me that the planes overhead might spot the light and drop a bomb on us.  Funny how I had forgotten this until reading Book Thief.

Thank you for the information on the Duden Dictionary - wouldn't you love to have one - a dictionary and thesaurus combined.  Why did Ilsa Hermann want Liesel to have this particular book?

[trlee]

Reply to PATH

I read what you said about "DEATH" giving us a warning about Rudy's death.  You said it lessened the shock, but for me it is like waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Now as each chapter begins.....I think to myself.....is this when it will happen?  I really love the character of Rudy.  I think he is so strong, creative, and comical.  I don't want to lose him.

Lee

[ALF43]

Lee- I know what you mean about Rudy.  He is very comical and you can see these kids growing up right before your eyes, can't you?  It makes me pause to think what kind of life they would have ultimately found together- had Rudy lived.  He loved her dearly and she loved him.  They may have been young but their love and enjoyment of one another was genuine.

What joy Liesel shared with her kind step-father as she accompanied him on his painting jobs, enjoying his many stories and even champagne.  Those are days that are never forgotten and remain within the heart of a woman forever. 

[mrssherlock]

mark

[straudetwo]

Ella,  thank you for posting the link to the DUDEN.  
The Duden is THE  one seminal, indispensable dictionary and reference  of the German language,  and in German (only).  My nine-volume edition was published in Mannheim in 1967.  

As you know, I had read only excerpts on line, and none mentioned the starred, capsule-like, almost incantatory linguistic excursions interspersed in the text.  The author seems to have taken a German word here and there and given it his alternate interpretations.  What exactly was the reason?
 
Nor were the illustrations referred to in the excerpts.
Has any one wondered who made those drawings in the book?  
Since there is no attribution, can we assume they are from the author's hand?  That would somehow not  surprise me, for the drawings seem to match the intensity of the primary-color metaphors.

JoanP,  the page numbers are smudgy in the paperback coopy before me, and unevenly bolded.  On what looks like 389 I stopped reading.

With respect, I cannot imagine that a march of Jews "and other criminals"  was possible, given the stifling cloak of secrecy laid over this sinister, infamous project.  It is unfathomable, in my opinion, that it would have been carried out in  the daytime in plain view of onlookers witnessing a parade.  

I can see it as allegorical,  but I fear millions of readers will believe it was fact.

[marcie]

The illustrations in THE BOOK THIEF were drawn by Trudy White. See http://www.trudywhite.com/about.html

[JoanP]

Thanks for sharing the information about the illustrator for the book, Marcie.  I read in an interview somewhere that the author thought at the outset that he was going to do the drawings (I'm not so sure he didn't do some of the smaller ones,) but that his ace was going to be friend Trudy White...who he finally did call upon to illustrate his book.  They do work for me in the context.  I can see Max drawing them in the basement...

Traudee just received her book and is puzzling over the "grunge font" used for page numbers.  I'd be really happy if someone found an explanation for this.  They are driving me crazy when I try to note something on a certain page and can't really figure them out unless I can make out a number on previous or later pages and count.  Do you think they are supposed to be done with a paintbrush?  Or perhaps a bad typewriter ribbon?
I'm hoping that we'll find out the reason for the grunge before we come to the end of the book.

I'd love to have a Duden dictionary ...but don't know where I'd keep  nine volumes!  I love the idea of a combined dictionary/thesaurus like the volume Liesel "stole".  From the link Ella provided, the Duden was first printed in 1870 1880.   Ilsa Hermann had a copy in her library and left it in the window for Liesel...
We aren't told why she decided that Liesel should have it.  Is it to help with her reading, do you think?  Or maybe writing?

I was interested in the words selected from the Duden and their synonyms... they seem to signal the contents of the chapter that is to follow:
 Zufriedenbeit - Happiness - describing the joy, and gladness Liesel felt when accompanying Hans as he painted the blinds.  
    Angst - Fear, the awareness of the danger felt in the bomb shelter.

Maybe some of you don't remember the blackout shades here in the US - is because you didn't live on one of the coasts.    It is my one clear memory of fear during the war, Ella.   I found this site that might explain the reason -

The civilian defense against air attacks began with pilots who flew along the coastlines and plane spotters who manned towers to watch for approaching enemy planes. There were also blackout drills that forced people to practice their response to the air-raid alarm signalThere were also blackout drills that forced people to practice their response to the air-raid alarm signal—a series of intermittent siren blasts. Air-raid wardens supervised the blackout drills, cruising up and down neighborhood streets to make sure no light escaped the houses. By early 1943, there were about 6 million volunteers in public protection roles such as air-raid warden.

Blackout drills were planned in advance and advertised. Street lights were turned off at the scheduled time. Anyone outside was to take cover inside. Those in their homes were instructed to pull down the blinds on their windows and keep the light inside to a minimum. People in cars were to pull over and find shelter in the nearest building. The idea was that enemy planes couldn't target what they couldn't see, and that any light visible from above could attract bombs and gunfire. Busy with the Blitz-Proofing

 

[JoanP]

The march through Molching to Dachau was a clear memory of the author's mother, who told this story  many times as Markus was growing up.  Of course, she was a child and her memory was colored by...by time.  But whatever it was she saw, it made a lasting impression on her.  The truck carrying the prisoners was said to have broken down, which explained why they were proceding on foot.  But there were two trucks.  No one believed that was the reason for the forced walk.

In her memory, someone offered a piece of bread to one of those walkers.  What happened after that may or may not be the author's fiction. It did take on an allegorical quality, didn't it, Traudee?  I think this chapter, "A Long Walk to Dachau"  needs to be reread - for the writing and for the fact that it marks a real turning point in the story.

[Ella Gibbons]

That must have been frightening, JOAN, to a five year old child.  Yes, I think I do remember hearing or reading of the drills on both coasts for bombs and also there was fear of submarines - actually wasn't there one German submarine captured on the Atlantic coast, Joan?

That was a long time ago to search one's memory.  Living in the midwest we had nothing like that to fear.  I wrote to a service man in WWII and, of course, in 1950 I married a veteran of that war.

Liesel and Max will be the two characsters that remain in my memory of this book; I hope I forget the character DEATH and the unhappiness that comes from its words.  It does no good to dwell on death, it is familiar to all who live.

[joangrimes]

Oh I remember the blackout curtains that we had on our windows.  My dad was an air raid warden.  We did not live on the coast.  We lived in the same area where I live now.  We are very much inland. I am going to post this before it goes away.  More of the posts that I try to post are lost than are posted. Joan Grimes

[straudetwo]

JoanP,
According to the link Ella provided, the Duden was first published in 1880.  It's now in its 24h edition.
My father had a copy, just one volume then, and I took it with me when we  came to this country.  
After my sister's unexpected death it fell to me to sort out her affairs, and I had the 9 volume shipped here.
It's entirely in German and useful  really only for those who speak, read and write German.

Thank  you, Marcie, for the name of the artist who provided the illustrations.

[Frybabe]

Okay, now you have me interested in trying to find the font used in the book again, JoanP. On very few occasions a publisher will list the type font used.. Unfortunately, not so with our book. There are a number of fonts that closely resemble the font in our book. Unfortunately, every tiny change in a font gets to be called by a new name so there are tons of fonts to look through and not a lot of time. I thought of Grunge first because those were an early dirty looking font family I know. There are many more dirty looking font families now.  I could not locate, so far, any comments from Random House about their font selection process. It could have taken months to find and settle on which fonts to use.

In the meantime, here is RH's webpage for Zusak and an interesting video about TBT. Also, there are links to other interviews, one of which is at least an hour. (This website may have been posted before.)

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/

[JoanP]

This is from an interview with Markus Zusak on the illustrator, Trudy White -

How did Max’s illustrations come about? Did you work them up first, or simply hand the text over to your illustrator Trudy White?

There was never any intention for me to do the final pictures. I did some of the early drafts,  but they were abominable. I knew that I had Trudy up my sleeve, but I wanted to show her and give my publishers an idea of what I wanted. It was Trudy’s idea completely to draw Max as a bird, which was perfect, as I had described him as having feathers of hair and he was really a captive bird in a basement of Nazi Germany.

Frybabe, I'm hoping that we will learn more about the font used on the page numbers before we finish the book.  Have you finished?  In the meantime, keep hunting - I admire your curiosity.  That's a great link to the Interview with Zusak on the forced walk to Dachau.  I hope everyone gets a chance to listen to it and then rereads the the Long Walk to Dachau chapter in the book.

Traudee, I wonder why no one has thought of publishing a Duden dictionary in English.  Do you suppose they have, only under a different name?  I fixed the date it first came out from 1870 to 1880.  A typo on my part.  Thanks.

[straudetwo]

Joan P,

The Duden was not designed as a foreign language dictionary - at least not originally.  It was and still is the essential tool for mastering the complex German language.  Orthography, syntax, and punctuation are still "serious business";  errors were marked and points deducted.   I have proof : an old notebook with German dictations and the grades.

There are, however, several publishers of  foreign dictionaries,  most prominent the internationally knownLangenscheidt.
That's what we used in school, and I hauled all of them with me when we came in the mid-fifties.  But the Russian-German, German-Russian dictionary  we used at Heidelberg  U was provided by the professor of Russian whose textbook we also used.

Langenscheidt Publishers is a private-held firm, still in the same family, founded in 1856,  thus ante-dating Duden by 36 years.

[BrianBrent]

I do not know what the Duden dictionary is, but felt at the time Liesel was being encouraged to write and write properly.  Such a moving story.  I've missed most of the discussion, and have not read through all of the remarks.  But wanted to say how glad I am to have read this book, it was so moving.  Took me a while to realize that Death was the narrator.  Interesting when he explained that he does not look the way we seem to think he looks.  No sythe.  He has a sense of humor, and they certainly needed it at the time this book took place. 

[Laura]

I think the summer of 1942, painting blackout blinds, was the best of times because it represented some of the last of the “normal” days, before the war entered Hans and Leisel’s town via the prisoner march and before Hans left.

Rudy false started because he didn’t want to stand out from the crowd as being superior in anything.  I didn’t understand it at the time, but later we find out that exceptional youth are being recruited for special training, and I assume he did not want to be among them.

I think Ilsa gave the dictionary to Leisel for two reasons:  as a sign of forgiveness and because she wanted to Leisel to be educated and enjoy and learn from books.  Leisel could use the dictionary to continue her self education.

[JoanP]

What I liked about the Duden  - it is a combination dictionary and thesaurus in one.  The entries we see and the synonyms prepare us for the coming chapter.  That's another outstanding feature about the book - while it tells of the most wrenching occurrences, they are done "gently" - and quote often with a sense of humor as you pointed out...BrianBrent.  Shall we call you that, or is there another name you would like to use - shorter?

Welcome to the discussion - there is still much more to talk about as we have just begun Part VII now.  I'm going back to The Long Walk to Dachau for examples of Zusak's "gentle"  approach to this episode.

[straudetwo]

Gumtree:

Just learned about the flooding and hope you are all right.
T.

[Babi]

I really love the character of Rudy.  I think he is so strong, creative,
and comical.  I don't want to lose him.

(LEE)
  LEE, you reminded me of the lead male character in "I Never Saw Another
Butterfly". My son had that role in a high school presentation. It was so
poignant I forgot I was watching my son and identified with the character.
It was a teen-age boy, falling in love for the first time, and then being
being sent to die in the gas chambers. I felt that loss so keenly.

TRAUDE, isn't it a fact that Jews and other 'undesirables' were dragged
out of their homes and taken to railway points to be shipped elsewhere.
Even if this always happened at night, it would still have been heard
and noticed by neighbors. I'm sure many lies were told in explanation,
but surely total secrecy would have been impossible.

  Do you suppose the 'grunge' numbering was supposed to reflect the
cheap paper available at the time?  Possibly good paper would be
in very short supply. Cheap paper would tend to smear the ink.

 LAURA, that was my impression also. Rudy was smart enough to avoid
attacting the attention of the recruiters. "Hitler Youth" was bad enough.