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f2e5c09
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It's about glowing lights and small things that are big.
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Markus Zusak |
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273d9cb
|
Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.
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Markus Zusak |
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d1158be
|
July 24, 6:03 A.M. The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff... Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing. He killed himself for wanting to live.
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war
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Markus Zusak |
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ab14bd8
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Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment. 'There were stars,' He said. 'They burned my eyes.' ...from a Himmel street window, he wrote, the stars set fire to my eyes.
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Markus Zusak |
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02fded3
|
I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.
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thief
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Markus Zusak |
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d6c66d3
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Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.
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Markus Zusak |
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e073d2a
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It's just... I wish it was easier, for me, you know?" I make a special point not to look at her. "I wish it was someone else who was chosen for this. Someone competent. If only I didn't stop that robbery. I wish I didn't have to go through with it all." It comes gushing out, with words like spilled milk. "And I wish it was me with you and not that other guy. I wish it was my own skin touching with yours..." And there you have it. Stupidity ..
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Markus Zusak |
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91ddf5d
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How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing.
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death
life
the-book-thief
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Markus Zusak |
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8791b7d
|
I can promise you that the world is a factory. The sun stirs it, the humans rule it. And I remain. I carry them away.- spoken by death
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Markus Zusak |
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0c3bb27
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She rubbed her eyes, and after a long study of his face, she spoke "Is it really you?" Is it from your cheek, she thought, that I took the seed? The man nodded. His heart wobbled and he held tighter to the branches. It is."
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the-word-shaker
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Markus Zusak |
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04d4983
|
Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out, like the rain. (p. 85)
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reading
love-for-words
the-book-thief
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Markus Zusak |
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32d92f1
|
If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.
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Markus Zusak |
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ad13f62
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It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you may expect, someone has died.
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world
death
white
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Markus Zusak |
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20494d1
|
Just be patient, she told herself, and with the mounting pages, the strength of her writing fist grew.
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Markus Zusak |
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479c0d1
|
Everything was good. But it was awful, too.
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Markus Zusak |
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857f573
|
She was battered and beaten up, and not smiling this time. Liesel could see it on her face. Blood leaked from her nose and licked at her lips. Her eyes had blackened. Cuts had opened up and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin. All from the words. From Liesel's words.
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words
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Markus Zusak |
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caa268a
|
Liesel continued the examination. She moved around him and shrugged. "Not bad." Not " I look better than just not bad." The shoes let you down. And your face." Rudy placed the lantern on the counter and came toward her in mock-anger, and Liesel had to admit that a nervousness started gripping her. It was with both relief and disappointment that she watched him trip and fall on the disgraced mannequin. On the floor, Rudy laughed. Then he c..
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Markus Zusak |
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a23757e
|
Maybe one morning I'll wake up and step outside of myself to look back at the old me lying dead among the sheets.
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Markus Zusak |
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16d1f58
|
I feel the fear, but I walk fast toward it.
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courage
fear
life
inspirational
i-am-the-messenger
markus-zusak
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Markus Zusak |
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b686afb
|
Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion! But his bellows were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out.
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fathers
death
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Markus Zusak |
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19a9771
|
It's my heart that is tired. A thirteen-year-old heart shouldn't feel like this.
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Markus Zusak |
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f9b0d8b
|
It makes me wonder, Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or forget things? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives? I don't know.
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time
wonder
i-don-t-know
lives
remember
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Markus Zusak |
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2d24475
|
She places her hands around my neck and rests her head on my shoulder. I can smell the sex on her, and my hope is that she can smell the love on me.
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Markus Zusak |
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840c814
|
Clearly, I see it. I was just about to leave when I found her kneeling there. A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her. She was clucthing at a book.
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Markus Zusak |
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96a94ba
|
She slid a book from the shelf and sat with it on the floor. She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words lttered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be ant of this. What good were the words? The book thief stood and waled carefully to the library door.
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Markus Zusak |
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7280afa
|
I'd been in love with her for years. I never left this suburban town. I didn't go to university. I went to Audrey.
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Markus Zusak |
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ba338d3
|
Summer came. For the books thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews.
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Markus Zusak |
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52550ee
|
He odiado las palabras y las he amado, y espero haber estado a su altura.
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liesel-meminger
|
Markus Zusak |
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f766b2a
|
Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew.
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Markus Zusak |
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cd7d3d0
|
As always, she was carrying the washing. Rudy was carrying two buckets of cold water, or as he put it, two buckets of future ice.
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Markus Zusak |
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1179f66
|
A NICE THOUGHT One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.
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Markus Zusak |
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02dd7c4
|
I'll never forget the first day in Auschwitz, the first time in Mauthausen. At that second place, as time wore on, I also picked them up from the bottom of the great cliff, when their escapes fell awfully awry. There were broken bodies and dead m sweet hearts. Still, it was better than the gas. Some of them I caught when they were only halfway down, Saved you, I'd think, holding their souls in midair as the rest of their being-their physica..
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Markus Zusak |
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81b9951
|
Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.
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Markus Zusak |
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a18016f
|
She was like a lone angel floating above the surface of the earth, laughing with delight because she could fly but crying out of loneliness.
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loneliness
sadness
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Markus Zusak |
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b2c2cff
|
The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better. What good were the words?
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Markus Zusak |
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b9c5c53
|
When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.
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love
|
Markus Zusak |
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229ad2f
|
Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes. I like that a lot.
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Markus Zusak |
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b27b52b
|
So I saw that there was only me. There was only me who could worry about what was happening here, inside these walls of my life. Other people had their own worlds to worry about, and in the end, they had to fend for themselves, just like us.
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people
only-me
walls
worlds
worry
|
Markus Zusak |
|
a3f44d4
|
She walked down the basement steps. She saw an imaginary framed photo seep into the wall - a quiet-smiled secret. No more than a few meters, it was a long walk to the drop sheets and the assortment of paint cans that shielded Max Vandenburg. She removed the sheets closest to the wall until there was a small corridor to look through. The first part of him she saw was his shoulder, and through the slender gap, she slowly, painfully, inched he..
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|
sleep
friendship
the-book-thief
german
jewish
|
Markus Zusak |
|
bd6b720
|
20 minutes later: a girl on Himmel Street. She looks up. She speaks in whisper. 'The sky is soft today, Max. The clouds are so soft and sad, and...' She looks away and crosses her arms. She thinks of her papa going to war and grabs her jacket at each side of her body. 'And it's cold, Max. It's so cold...
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|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
5565aeb
|
I want to talk to him. I want to ask him about that girl and if he loved her and still misses her.
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|
Markus Zusak |
|
06973c1
|
He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.
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|
Markus Zusak |
|
ff66f6a
|
The water crumbles on it's way down as my hands and feet push me forward. The world is lightening, taking shape, and turning to color. It feels like it's being painted around me.
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|
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Markus Zusak |
|
7b23617
|
She let herself love me for three minutes. Can three minutes last forever? I ask myself, but already know the answer. Probably not, I reply. But maybe they last long enough.
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Markus Zusak |