[amtap book:isbn=0375842209]
Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a devastating novel. It’s categorized as a young adult book, but please don’t let that stop you from reading it.

Here’s a bit of the Washington Post review that made me want to pick it up:

Death, it turns out, is not proud.

The narrator of “The Book Thief” is many things — sardonic, wry, darkly humorous, compassionate — but not especially proud. As author Marcus Zusak channels him, Death — who doesn’t carry a scythe but gets a kick out of the idea — is as afraid of humans as humans are of him.

Knopf is blitz-marketing this 550-page book set in Nazi Germany as a young-adult novel, though it was published in the author’s native Australia for grown-ups. (Zusak, 30, has written several books for kids, including the award-winning I Am the Messenger.) The book’s length, subject matter and approach might give early teen readers pause, but those who can get beyond the rather confusing first pages will find an absorbing and searing narrative.

[amtap book:isbn=0375842209]