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Critical Praise

"Zusak doesn't sugercoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE: with grim, darkly consoling humor."
Time

"Zusak's novel is a major achievement."
People

 “Exquisitely written. . . . A tour de force to be not just read but inhabited.”

The Horn Book Magazine, Starred

 “An EXTRAORDINARY narrative.”

School Library Journal, starred review

"Beautiful and important."

——KIRKUS REVIEWS, Starred

"An achievement."

——PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred

"Brilliant and hugely ambitious… It’s the kind of book that can be life changing."

——THE NEW YORK TIMES

"The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel’s Night. It seems poised to become a classic."

——USA TODAY