The Book Thief Chapter 83

The Rib-Cage Planes

• The first lines of The Book Thief are about seeing her brother die, stealing The Grave Diggers Handbook, and being on her way to Himmel Street.
• She writes eleven pages before Rosa threatens her with the bucket of cold water if she doesn't come to bed.
• Liesel continues this routine for ten nights, each night writing ten pages.
• On the tenth night there's an air raid. Liesel has written one hundred and two pages. She's in the basement when Hans comes down to take her to the bomb shelter.
• The next air raid happens on October 2, 1942. Liesel has finished her book and is editing it in the basement. There are just a few blank pages left.
• Death says, "The book was divided in ten parts, all of which were given the title of books or stories and described how each affected her life" (83.14).
• (A-ha! If we look back over the section titles, we find this to be true of Death's book The Thief as well!)
• Death wonders, "what page she is up to when […] when the first bomb dropped from the ribcage of a plane" (83.15).
• Death quotes the last line of Liesel's book, "I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right" (83.17).