Impressions+of+the+Novel

**//__ What is a book thief __//****// ? At a brief, impromptu funeral held train-side, a 14-year-old gravedigger drops a book on “digging…how to do it right..... Liesel surreptitiously picks it up and hides it, holding it close – hence the novel’s title. //**
 * // Death as narrator – As I read this novel I picture Nicholas Cage (as he appeared in the film “City of Angels”) watching over the young Liesel Meminger (Dakota Fanning, perhaps). Death tells us that he feels for the souls of the soon-to-be-departed and takes them as gently as he can into the next world. I am reminded of films/televison dramas:Meet Joe Black, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait, City of Angels, Ghost Whisperer.  //**
 * // As the novel opens, a weary mother is taking her two children on a train to the town of Molching where they will be greeted by a foster family (Liesel’s mother can no longer afford to feed, clothe, house, and educate her children). Sadly, her brother does not survive the trip – enter Death.   //**