January Reading Challenge

I joined the 2010 Social Justice Challenge over at Maw Books, which includes, in part, reading books related to specific social-justice themes throughout the year. Religious freedom is January’s theme. I chose a book that’s been on my list for a while, but hadn’t read yet (I may be the only one): The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, a 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor Book. (I know, took me long enough.)

Set in Nazi Germany, the book is narrated, quite poetically in fact, by Death, who relates the story of a girl, Liesel Meminger, and her foster family and neighbors on Himmel Street, a poor neighborhood in a town outside of Munich. The war is escalating, food is scarce, and support of the Nazis expected. Despite this bleak and violent backdrop, there’s still beauty, and heart, in Liesel’s world, exemplified through a main thread of the story—Liesel’s foster parents giving refuge to a Jewish man, Max Vandenburg, by hiding him in their basement—and in so many other scenes, grace in the midst of wartime brutality. As the title suggests, it’s also a book about, well, books—Liesel’s growing need for books, and her growing understanding of the power of words. And it’s through Markus Zusak’s own terrific ability to work with words that The Book Thief doesn’t become just a dark retelling of the inhumanity demonstrated during World War II, but a reminder of the human capacity for compassion and the redemptive potential of our stories—art—to help us transcend humankind’s worst deeds. Zusak’s characters (three cheers for Rudy Steiner!) are complex and real.

For more about The Book Thief, check out this interview with Markus Zusak at the Random House site.

Going back to the January “religious freedom” theme, The Book Thief is not about religious freedom or tolerance (intolerance) per se, though clearly, that’s a central theme given where and when the book is set. What I appreciated about the book, as it ties to my own thoughts about religious freedom, is it explores more the issue of the dark and light of being human, and the acknowledgment of that humanness. What harm are we capable of doing to each other, and what kindness can we express? How do we respond to others in need—are we willing to stand up when others, whose belief system may be different than our own, are persecuted or brutalized? In my mind, how can we not?

Many more books suggested through the challenge I’m adding to my reading list. Among them, Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa-Abdel Fattah and Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Kahn.