Markus Zusak Celebrates 10th Anniversary Of ‘The Book Thief’

“Here is a small fact: You are going to die.”

These words appear in bold on the first page of Markus Zusak’s 2005 magnum opus “The Book Thief.” Readers find out shortly thereafter that the story is being narrated by Death himself.

Set in Germany in 1939, the story is about a young girl, Liesel, who begins feeding her ravenous appetite for the written word by stealing books from wherever they are to be found, including Nazi book-burnings. Once her family takes in a Jewish man, Liesel’s petty thievery takes on a whole new meaning.

Zusak joined Lois Reitzes in the WABE studios to talk about celebrating the book’s 10th anniversary, and how the book was originally going to be a short novella about his parents. Three years and 500 pages later, that novella became the critically acclaimed work which would later be adapted into a 2013 film starring Geoffrey Rush.