Page 137 - The Book Thief

ENTER THE STRUGGLER

Now for a change of scenery.

Weve both had it too easy till now, my friend, dont you think? How about we
forget Molching for a minute or two?

It will do us some good.

Also, its important to the story.

We will travel a little, to a secret storage room, and we will see what we see.

A GUIDED TOUR OF SUFFERING
To your left,
perhaps your right,
perhaps even straight ahead,
you find a small black room.
In it sits a Jew.
He is scum.
He is starving.
He is afraid.
Pleasetry not to look away.

A few hundred miles northwest, in Stuttgart, far from book thieves, mayors
wives, and Himmel Street, a man was sitting in the dark. It was the best place,
they decided. Its harder to find a Jew in the dark.

He sat on his suitcase, waiting. How many days had it been now?

He had eaten only the foul taste of his own hungry breath for what felt like
weeks, and still, nothing. Occasionally voices wandered past and sometimes he