The Book Thief

Lisa is on the cusp of adolescence while she is put up for adoption by Nazi authorities and finds herself in the home of Hans and Rosa Hubermann. She is confused as to why she has to live with her foster parents when her mom is alive. After settling into her foster home, she takes a liking for her adopted parents. She makes new friends and when not playing with them, learns to read with her dad. She loves the exhilarating feeling that books give her and begins to lift them (books apart from Nazi propaganda were banned in Germany then) from the house of an influential Nazi politician who was probably exempt from the rule. The books help her maintain sanity during the trying war and assist in the blossoming of a special relationship with Max, a Jew being hidden from the Nazi authorities by Lisa's parents in their basement. Do the Nazi authorities capture Max and punish the Hubermann family?

Death has a special role as that of a narrator and sympathetic spectator.