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Death is the narrator of this story, and he describes his first encounter with Liesel. The book thief stole his book called “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” from him but he doesn’t know how to read so he can’t use it. He also tells us about a time when she was riding on a train with her mother and brother Werner, who died in that same journey. When they got off the train, Death accompanied them to bury her brother at a cemetery in Molching where Liesel will eventually live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann.

Rosa is loud and insulting but Hans wins Liesel’s trust by being gentle, kind-hearted person who supports her all the way through life.

Liesel has nightmares of her dead brother, and Hans comforts her. She meets Rudy Steiner, who is obsessed with Jesse Owens. They become best friends. He constantly asks Liesel to kiss him, but she always refuses. Hans discovers that Liesel can’t read very well and gives her reading lessons in the basement. Meanwhile World War II begins, and there’s a book burning for Hitler’s birthday where Liesel steals a book from the fire.

Rosa is a maid for many wealthy people in town. She does the laundry for some of them, including the mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann. When Rosa delivers the washing to her house one day after a book burning, she invites Liesel inside and shows her books from all over the world and time periods. Liesel reads as much as she can when she visits there.

Meanwhile, a young Jewish boxer named Max Vandenburg hides in a storage room for weeks. A friend brings him an identity card hidden in a copy of Hitler’s book. He goes to Molching and finds the Hubermanns, who let him hide out in their house since Hans promised to help Max’s mother if she ever needed it. They share nightmares and soon become friends. Max paints over the pages of Mein Kampf (Hitler’s book) and writes The Standover Man for Liesel.

Ilsa Hermann quits her job and insults Liesel. Later, Rudy helps Liesel steal books from Ilsa’s library. Max gets sick and falls into a coma, but he recovers to the delight of everyone in the house. The Nazi Party checks the basement for its potential as a bomb shelter but doesn’t notice Max hiding there. Meanwhile, Ilsa leaves Liesel a note in one of the stolen books and Liesel realizes that she was letting her steal them all along. The war escalates and there is an air raid on Molching where they have to leave Max behind because it’s too dangerous for him to go outside with them during an air raid so they read out loud together inside their bomb shelter instead while bombs drop overhead above them until finally it ends after what felt like forever when everything goes quiet again then suddenly everybody comes running back upstairs laughing about how they thought Hitler had taken over or something crazy like that which would’ve been impossible anyway since we were winning by this point plus no way could anyone take over Germany without us knowing about it first which means we’re still safe so now everyone can go home because it’s time to sleep again except not yet though because nobody knows exactly when another attack might happen next time so better be prepared just in case if you know what I mean…

Rudy is drafted into the army and Liesel leaves bread for Jewish prisoners. Hans beats her when he finds out, so she runs away with Max’s sketchbook. She learns that words are powerful from The Word Shaker story.

In the army, Hans was assigned to a squad that cleaned up after bombings. However, his bus crashed and he broke his leg. As such, he was allowed to return home to heal. A pilot from the Allies crashes during another raid and Liesel watches him die as Rudy looks on. There are more parades of Jews in town, and one day Liesel sees Max among them. They find each other and both are whipped for it by the mayor’s men who caught them together. Liesel goes into the library where she rips up books in her frustration at not being able to help Max or any of those Jewish people being marched around town in their prison outfits with numbers on their arms like they were animals at a zoo or cattle headed for slaughterhouses.”