2 Beside the Railway Line

6 Growing Up a Saumensch

At the Hubermanns' Liesel is confused about her situation, feeling abandoned by her mother and not understanding the meaning of Communist, as it has pertained to her family's life. Rosa swears constantly and insults everyone. Hans, however, soothes Liesel by teaching her to roll cigarettes. A World War I veteran, Hans is a painter who loves to smoke and play the accordion. Rosa, a short, square-looking woman and terrible cook, earns money by doing laundry for wealthier families. She has a gruff exterior but does love her husband and Liesel, requesting that her foster daughter call her Mama.

5 Arrival on Himmel Street

Part 1 is called "the grave digger's handbook" after the first book Liesel steals. In this first chapter nine-year-old Liesel Meminger, known as the book thief, is on a train with her mother and six-year-old brother Werner, heading for the town of Molching, near Munich, to stay with a foster family. As Liesel is dreaming of Adolf Hitler, Werner dies suddenly on the train. The narrator, Death, watches Liesel's reaction to her brother's death. Knowing to stay away from Liesel but interested in her, Death attends the makeshift funeral and burial in the next town. At first Liesel has no reaction, but after the funeral she attempts to dig up the body with her bare hands. When she stops, she notices a book lying in the snow and she takes it, even though she cannot read.

Liesel is placed with a foster family, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, who live on Himmel Street in Molching. Frightened and sad, Liesel refuses to come out of the car, but Hans, gentler than his wife, coaxes her inside. No one knows she has the stolen book, The Grave Digger's Handbook, in her suitcase.

4 The Flag

The last time Death sees the book thief, the color is red, as many people have died in a bombing. She survives, clinging to a book. Death wants to apologize to the girl, but cannot. When she drops her book in grief, he picks it up and carries it with him. Death says it is one of many stories told to justify human existence to Death. He offers to share the story with the reader. The white, black, and red form the Nazi flag.

3 The Eclipse

Death, arriving in black, sees the book thief years later when he comes for the soul of a young man in an airplane crash. Amidst the wreckage a boy arrives moments before the pilot dies, takes out a toolbox and teddy bear, and the book thief arrives a moment later. Death sees the loss of a soul as an eclipse.

2 Beside the Railway Line

Death sees the book thief for the first time beside a railway line on a freezing day, the ground covered by frost, white being a color of death. She is accompanied by a mother and young boy, whom Death visited on the train. The daughter is crying, tears frozen to her face. Death gets curious about the girl and stays to watch for a little while.