Companion Book for The Book Thief

Character Description

DEATH

    Serving as a narrator to this book, Death is a spiritual character, whose other name is the Grim Reaper. Death himself meets Liesel Meminger/Book Thief for 3 times only, including times her brother died. The last time he meets Liesel is during the air bombing raids in Munich, also where he finds the autobiography of Liesel Meminger and starts narrating this book. He appears in-book few times, explaining about things. 

MAX VANDERBURG

  A 23-year-old Jew who flees and hides from the Nazis in the Hubermanns' basement. Max was a fist-fighter growing up, meeting another character who is mentioned in the book for a short time by this. This character, could be said as Max's best friend, is the one who helps him to the Hubermanns. Max is consumed with guilt by leaving his family to spare his life, having nightmares just like Liesel does about her dead brother. Over time, they both overcome their nightmares somehow, talking to each other every night, often reading books together. Max makes two books for Liesel, both including about their friendship, and the Nazi;The Standover Man, and The Word Shaker. Later in the book, Max is taken away to a concentration camp, but he survives it and reunites with Liesel for a bit.

LIESEL MEMINGER

  Introduced by Death as "The Book Thief," Liesel is nine at the beginning of the novel, when her younger brother dies and she is given up by her mother to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the small town of Molching(more like she was given to Hubermanns by her mother to free her from persecution). Liesel is shocked by her brother's death, but Hans proves to be a calming foster father; with his help, she learns to read and soon finds comfort in the written word. Over the course of the novel, she befriends Max, the Jew who arrives to hide from the Nazis in the Hubermanns' basement, and falls in love with Rudy Steiner, her best friend. Ultimately, Liesel learns the power of words to influence humans to act towards both good and evil as she experiences the beauty and the brutality of humanity. Death describes her as a "perpetual survivor," and Liesel survives Hitler's reign while many of those whom she loves perish as a result of World War II and the Holocaust.  

HANS HUBERMANN

  Hans Hubermann is Liesel's foster father, who is an amateur accordian player and a painter. He helps Liesel for many things, which makes him so special because he was the one who taught Lisel how to write, and read. In his past, he was at the World War I with a Jew named Erik Vanderberg, where he makes a promise to take care of his family for saving his life. He keeps his promise by hiding Erik's son, Max Vanderberg in his house, who flees from Nazis. Hans does not hate Jews unlike most of the people in the town and helps them by many ways such as painting over the door written anti-Jewish slurs on a Jew's house. This kindness later gets him in trouble, sent to serve as a hazardous air raid recovery unit, which he survives, but dies in the air raid that hits Molching at the end of the novel. 

ROSA HUBERMANN

  Rosa Huberman is Hans Hubermann's wife, who serves as Liesel's foster mother. Rosa is a woman who makes few money doing washings for rich neighborhoood. Rosa frequently swears and is "always" mad at everyone, finding something to blame at someone or swear at someone, according to Death, the narrator. Liesel describes her at all cause, she is a good woman indeed and how Liesel feels her great love towards her even though her foster mother swears and treats badly towards her often. Later in the book, Rosa's spirit is beat down by events such as Hans' death, Max taken away, etc.

RUDY STEINER

  Rudy Steiner is one of six Steiner children, who suddenly falls in love with Liesel when she first arrives at Molching. He becomes her best friend by helping her in many ways, showing places and doing things with her, always accompaning her. Rudy is very brave and reckless, he too once was caught painting himself in black with coals and running around imitating Jesse Owens, his favorite athelete. For his such immense love for Liesel, he asks her for a kiss by two things; a race and after fetching a book flowing down the icy river for her. Anyways, at the end of the novel, Liesel too ends up loving Rudy, and she kisses Rudy's body when he dies at the air raid in Molching.

ILSA HERMANN

  Ilsa Hermann is the mayor's wife.  She is a clever woman who too loves book like Liesel, and her relationship with Liesel starts when she spots Liesel stealing a book in the book buring at Molching, leading for her to ask Liesel to come in and read in her library the time Liesel comes to fetch washings for her foster mother. Ilsa Hermann looks mostly depressed and doesn't speak much due to her son's death who froze to death in the last year of World War I. Most imporant fact about her is that she later gives Liesel a blank book, encouraging her to write. Also, she takes Liesel to her house to be Liesel's second foster mother when her first foster parents, Hubermanns, died in the air raid.