It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.Since its publication in 2005, The Book Thief has sold over seventeen million copies, been translated into sixty-three languages, and appeared at the top of favourite-reading lists, year after year, around the world.For a generation, it has served to illuminate the unfathomable events of a horrifying time through the eyes of the youthful Liesel - where books, words and stories form a lens of deepest empathy.A defining literary classic of the twenty-first century, The Book Thief will continue to mesmerise readers for generations to come.Liesel's brother dies on the children's journey to a new home. At his graveside, she steals a copy of The Gravedigger's Handbook.This first act of book thievery leads to Liesel's love affair with words. Soon she is stealing books wherever she can, from the mayor's wife's library to Nazi book burnings.But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a young stranger in their basement, her world is both shut down and opened up in the most startling of ways. And Liesel will soon understand - the story of war is countless stories, and this one is only beginning.Praise for The Book Thief:'Unsettling, thought-provoking, life-affirming, triumphant and tragic ... a novel of breathtaking scope' - GUARDIAN'A sweeping, poetic and beautifully crafted tale' - DAILY TELEGRAPH