Books Like The Book Thief

Why Each Pick

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The closest match. A blind French girl and a German orphan boy grow up on opposite sides of World War II, and their paths meet in a besieged coastal town. Like The Book Thief, it follows ordinary children inside the war, with a German character who is neither hero nor villain, and it uses very short chapters. It is written for adults, with alternating timelines, at 531 pages.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

For readers who loved The Book Thief's devotion to books. In a future where firemen burn books, Guy Montag starts secretly reading the ones he is supposed to destroy. Liesel rescues a book from a Nazi book burning; Montag's whole society is built on them. It is a short science fiction classic, at 194 pages, more driven by ideas and less emotional, with an adult hero.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A girl narrator, a gentle and principled father figure and a town turning on its outsiders. Scout Finch watches her lawyer father defend a Black man falsely accused in 1930s Alabama, much as Liesel watches Hans Hubermann's quiet decency under the Nazis. It is set in the American South with no war, and its tone is warmer and often funny. It is 336 pages.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Childhood friendship, war and the guilt of failing someone when it mattered. Amir, a boy in Kabul, betrays his loyal friend Hassan, and decades later returns to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to make amends. Like The Book Thief, it follows children through a country's collapse, but it is told by an adult looking back and is harder to read. Content note: it includes the sexual assault of a child.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

World War II Germany seen from the ground, with a narrator who records death in a flat, wry refrain, "So it goes," that readers of Death's asides will recognize. Billy Pilgrim, an American prisoner of war, survives the firebombing of Dresden and comes unstuck in time. It is a short satirical novel, with time travel and aliens, and far less sentimental than Zusak.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

For readers who want the true history behind The Book Thief. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl describes surviving Nazi concentration camps and what he saw about why some prisoners kept going. Max Vandenburg's hiding is fiction; Frankl's account is a survivor's own. It is nonfiction and short, at 184 pages, and its second half explains the psychological theory he built from the experience.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Another story of ordinary people surviving history they can't control. Pachinko follows a Korean family across four generations in twentieth-century Japan, through occupation, war and discrimination. Like The Book Thief, it finds courage in small acts of loyalty within a family. It covers far more time, at 490 pages, and is an adult family saga rather than one girl's story.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

For readers who want another young adult novel about love, books and mortality. Sixteen-year-old Hazel, who has cancer, meets Augustus at a support group, and a shared favorite novel takes them to Amsterdam. Like Liesel, Hazel finds comfort in a book. It is contemporary and funnier, with no war, but it is also a well-known tearjerker. It is 313 pages.