The Book Thief Chapter 86

Wood In The Afternoon

• Himmel Street has been cleaned up after the bombing and nobody is sure what to do with Liesel.
• She and her accordion are with the police when Ilsa Hermann comes for her. Grande Strasse was not bombed.
• She rides home with Ilsa in the mayor's car. The mayor drives.
• Liesel talks to herself all night long.
• She doesn't take a bath.
• She sleeps without dreaming and doesn't want to wake up.
• Four days later, when she goes to the funerals, she still hasn't bathed.
• Some people think they saw her in the Amper River with all her clothes on, saying something about a kiss.
• Time passes and the war rages.
• Liesel remembers her books. She goes to Himmel Street to try to find them, but there's no trace.
• There's a second funeral for the Steiner family when Alex Steiner comes home, shortly after the bombing.
• He thinks that if he hadn't kept Rudy from going to the Nazi school, Rudy might still be alive.
• He tells Liesel he would give anything to have somehow traded his life for his sons.
• Liesel tells him about kissing Rudy's dead lips.
• Death says, "There were wooden teardrops and an oaky smile" (86.26).
• (Since this is Rudy's funeral, the references to wood might have to do with Rudy's coffin, though it isn't really clear. What do you think? )