Friday, September 18, 2009

Imaginations...


Yesterday, on the way back from Tarzali to Townsville, we'd run out of book tapes to listen to (had finished Joanna Trollope's Second Honeymoon). Before we left, we picked up new books at the PO, however, so I started reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief aloud to Elliot. It's not an easy book to read aloud because part of the experience involves seeing the way the words are set out on the page... but I think I managed to convey appropriate pauses etc. We got through Part One. Wow, what an imaginative leap this book is. Zusak originally wrote prizewinning books for young adults, but this is his debut adult book and it became a New York Times Number#1 bestseller in 2006!!!

Not a bad debut.

Markus Zusak is an Australian, living in Sydney, but his parents lived in Europe during WW2 and he'd heard their stories. This story is set in Germany during WW2 and the narrator is Death. An unpromising scenario you might think, but that's where this book is so clever. Death is afraid of humans and yet many of the human characters are so very appealing. It's a book about light amidst the darkness, I think, and it really is an amazing reading experience. Strongly recommended... even though I've only read Part One :)

1 comment:

2paw said...

I've always loved being read to, and I always read to my class at school. The promise of a new chapter was a great carrot. I have heard of The Book Thief but never read it.