Shreya's Treasures

THE BOOK THIEF MARKUS ZUSAK GENRE : HISTORICAL FICTION, WAR NOVEL, YA FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED : 2005 "Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would all smile at the beauty of destruction." Try­ing to make sense of the hor­rors of World War II, Death in Markus Zusak's book "The Book Thief" relates the sto­ry of Liesel, a young Ger­man girl whose book-steal­ing and sto­ry-telling tal­ents help sus­tain her fos­ter fam­i­ly and the Jew­ish man they are hid­ing, as well as their neigh­bors. Fortunately, this book isn't about Death; it's about death, and so much else. It is about love, kindness, friendship, trust, books, and lots of thievery. It is about finding small happiness during the dark times, and having faith in humanity. Liesel Meminger's little brother dies just before her mother leaves her with the foster parents in a dismal town in southern Germany (her father, a Communist, has been take...

THE PIANIST DIRECTOR : ROMAN POLANSKI RELEASED : 2002 “The life of a human being, let alone his personal freedom, is a matter of no importance. But the love of freedom is native to every human being and every nation, and cannot be suppressed in the long term. History teaches us that tyranny has never endured. And now we have blood-guilt on our conscience for the dreadful injustice of murdering the Jewish inhabitants.” Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" tells the story of a Polish Jew, a classical musician, who survived the Holocaust through stoicism and good luck. This is not a thriller, and avoids any temptation to crank up suspense or sentiment; it is the pianist's witness to what he saw and what happened to him. That he survived was not a victory when all whom he loved died. It is a cold, harsh approach to a cold, harsh subject and the film treats its history with the utmost respect, detailing the experiences of one man and one journey whilst implying that...