#4 in Historical fiction
The Book Thief
- 563
- Pages
- about 10 h
- Reading time
- Film 2013
- On screen
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Our view
Death narrates this novel set in Nazi Germany, an unexpected choice that gives it a distinctive voice and lifts it above a conventional war story. The real strength is the characters: Liesel, for whom reading becomes a way of holding on, and Hans Hubermann, a decent man whose decency is never the easy option. It is a tender book that hurts, so expect grief across its 560 pages.
Worth knowing Markus Zusak, an Australian, grew up on his German mother’s and Austrian father’s stories of the war, including one about a boy beaten for giving bread to a Jewish prisoner marched through Munich. The novel is narrated by Death and set in Molching, a fictional town near Munich. Published in 2005, it was sold as young adult fiction in the US and as adult fiction in Australia. The 2013 film stars Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by the Australian author Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Published in 2005, The Book Thief became an international bestseller and was translated into 63 languages and sold 17 million copies. It was adapted into the 2013 feature film, The Book Thief.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe Book ThiefIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.6 across 2,732 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 95% of the weight and the score stays at 8.6 — the Historical fiction average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 144 | 5% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 5 | 0% |
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 2.6K | 95% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Book Thief for?
The Book Thief sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 563 pages — longer than 73% of the ranked books in Historical fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Historical fiction — with scores between 7.8 and 8.5, closest to this book.
