The Book Thief Chapter 77

The End of the World (Part 1)

• Death is giving away the end of the story. First, it will be "raining on Himmel Street when the world ends for Liesel Meminger" (77.1).
• Death hopes that Himmel Street wasn't bombed on purpose. Death asks, "No one would bomb a place named after heaven, would they?" (77.6).
• Well, they do bomb Himmel Street while everybody Liesel knows on Himmel Street is sleeping.
• Himmel Street is completely demolished.
• The only survivor: Liesel.
• She is in the basement editing her memoir, "the story of her own life" (77.12). Turns out the Hubermann basement is a deep enough bomb shelter after all.
• To get the attention of the LSE (air raid cleanup squad) men above, she's "hammering a paint can with a pencil" (77.12).
• The men move wreckage to find her.
• A man asks her how she knew the air raid was coming when there was no alert.
• (Because there was no alert, the people of Himmel Street didn't go to a bomb shelter.)
• Liesel, who is holding onto a book, begins screaming for Hans.
• She holds the book and looks for the people she loves.