Death introduces himself as the narrator of the novel. The first time he saw the book thief, he says, was on a train. The next time he saw her was when he came for a pilot who had crashed his plane. And the third time was after a bombing. He associates a color with each sighting: white, red, and black, the colors of the Nazi flag. Death then begins the story. Liesel, her mother, and her brother Werner are traveling on a train to Munich when Werner suddenly dies. Liesel and her mother get off the train to bury the body, and Liesel steals a book from one of the gravediggers. She and her mother continue their journey to a town called Molching, where Liesel will be raised by foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. At first Liesel doesn’t like her foster parents, but Hans wins her over by teaching her to roll cigarettes for him.

Slowly, Liesel adjusts to her new life, though she is plagued by nightmares of her dead brother. She meets and befriends a neighborhood boy named Rudy, who worships the American athlete Jesse Owens and constantly pesters Liesel to kiss him. When Hans discovers that Liesel doesn’t know how to read, he begins teaching her the alphabet, and together they make their way through the book Liesel stole from the gravedigger. Meanwhile, the political situation in Molching and throughout Germany is becoming serious, with war escalating and food and work shortages at home. When the town holds a book-burning to celebrate Hitler’s birthday, Liesel steals another book from...