Words of Others | Bombing Heaven

Yesterday, I finished reading The Book Thief, which is a novel by Markus Zusak set in a German town during World War II. It is narrated by Death and centers on a young girl who is adopted into a foster family that ends up hiding a Jewish man in their basement. She is the book thief, and the family lives in a town outside Munich, on Himmel Street. It is a book about growing up, learning to both love and hate the power of words, the highs and lows of human nature, and terrible loss. This quote isn’t giving much away, as one of the more interesting things about this book is that it gives away the ending early on, and somehow manages to make that work. The torture of knowing the ending is orchestrated perfectly. The quote comes in the form of one of the many asides from Death as he (it?) tells the story:

* * * A SMALL, SAD HOPE * * *
No one wanted to
bomb Himmel Street.
No one would bomb a
place named after
heaven, would they?
Would they?

I loved this book. It is definitely worth reading.