Silent No More

This book is the pinnacle of what writing should be. I cannot do justice in describing how this book reads, you can only read it yourself and understand. Its writing is smooth and easy, it never feels like a chore or even like a book, it is real and feels less like reading and more like watching. Every time I picked up the book I was easily transported into the story as if the page was instead a screen. However, the writing is simply the tip of the iceberg.

The premise of this story is one all too familiar. The holocaust and WWII made an unfading mark on the world and, consequently, has endless stories to be told. This one may be fictional, but it highlights a very real situation through plausible events. It forces empathy to the point that even the most cruel, unfeeling person, would be almost choked with the emotion and depth of this book.

Our main character is a German girl, she is not Jewish. This may be surprising due to the nature of the book but Zusak executes this flawlessly. He puts the audience in the shoes of someone who has been through a lot, but who is ultimately the most relatable person we could follow under the circumstances; as readers who are decades past the events of this book, most of us cannot relate to the atrocities committed against the Jewish people. However (especially if you’re American), we can relate to being bystanders of atrocities now. Many of us are helpless to them, like Liesel. So even though she is not a blank slate of a character to be filled in by whoever reads the book, she is the best representation of someone who knows hardships but is still naive to the world.

The relationships within this book help highlight one of the main points I feel Zusak was trying to make: we are all human, and that is hard. We see the horrors of Nazi Germany while also seeing the more simple side, the side of normal people forced to live under it despite their own beliefs. But we see how those beliefs are still there in spite of their circumstances. Morals and values can be changed but whatever they are, they are ingrained in you from the moment you are born and begin to grow into whatever world you’re in.

This book shows both the perspective of normalcy in an abnormal society as well as those most negatively affected by that society. It shows the crossroads of both perspectives as they enhance each other, and in the end, it shows the horrors of war and hate and entrapment.

The ending of this book is a stunning experience, filled with sorrow and despair while also filled with hope and relief. In the end, Death does not relish in abundance, but in the small specks of life that shine gloriously as they fade.