Page 443 - The Book Thief

THE CARDPLAYER

Around the time Liesel and Rudy were eating the cookies, the resting men of the
LSE were playing cards in a town not far from Essen. Theyd just completed the
long trip from Stuttgart and were gambling for cigarettes. Reinhold Zucker was
not a happy man.

Hes cheating, I swear it, he muttered. They were in a shed that served as their
barracks and Hans Hubermann had just won his third consecutive hand. Zucker
threw his cards down in disgust and combed his greasy hair with a threesome of
dirty fingernails.

SOME FACTS ABOUT

REINHOLD ZUCKER
He was twenty-four. When he won a round
of cards, he gloatedhe would hold the
thin cylinders of tobacco to his nose and
breathe them in. The smell of victory,
he would say. Oh, and one more thing.
He would die with his mouth open.

Unlike the young man to his left, Hans Hubermann didnt gloat when he won. He
was even generous enough to give each colleague one of his cigarettes back and
light it for him. All but Reinhold Zucker took up the invitation. He snatched at
the offering and flung it back to the middle of the turned-over box. I dont need
your charity, old man. He stood up and left.

Whats wrong with him? the sergeant inquired, but no one cared enough to
answer. Reinhold Zucker was just a twenty-four-year-old boy who could not
play cards to save his life.

Had he not lost his cigarettes to Hans Hubermann, he wouldnt have despised