Who Narrates The Book Thief? Why Death Tells the Story
A narrator who is tired, kind and very busy in 1943
The Book Thief is narrated by Death. Not a cruel figure, but a weary, gentle one who carries away the dead, is haunted by what humans do to each other, and becomes fascinated by a girl who steals books.
Death meets Liesel three times: at her brother's death on a train, at the crash of an enemy pilot and at the bombing of Himmel Street.
Why did Zusak choose Death?
Zusak has said that in war Death is everywhere, so it seemed the natural witness. His first drafts used Death as a darker, more gleeful narrator, which did not work, and then Liesel herself, which felt too small. The final Death is exhausted by war, frightened of humans and moved by them, which gives the book its unusual mixture of sorrow and tenderness.
↑ Back to the topHow does Death tell the story?
Death speaks directly to the reader, often in short bold notes, lists and definitions that break up the story. It notices colours above everything else, the white of snow, the black of night, the red of a flag, because colours are what help it cope with its work. It talks about carrying the dead gently and about the sky at the moment of each death.
↑ Back to the topWhy does Death give away the ending?
Early in the book Death tells you that Rudy will die. Zusak said he wanted readers to know what was coming so they would pay attention to how it happens, and to every moment Rudy has before then. Many readers say it makes the ending more painful, not less, because they spend the whole book dreading it.
↑ Back to the topWhat does the narrator add?
Death gives the story a scale no child narrator could: it has seen every war and can tell us what is happening across Europe while Liesel is stealing apples. Yet Death is the one most changed by the story. At the end it admits that humans haunt it, a fitting closing thought for a book about how much beauty and cruelty people are capable of.
↑ Back to the topDeath's meetings with Liesel
| Meeting | When | What Death sees |
|---|---|---|
| First | January 1939 | Liesel's brother dies on a train |
| Second | During the air raids | An enemy pilot dies after a crash near Molching |
| Third | 1943 | The bombing of Himmel Street |
| Last | Decades later | Liesel herself, as an old woman in Sydney |
More about The Book Thief
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