The Book Thief
I just finished one the best books I have ever read in 2007. No, scratch that, one of the best books I have read in my life. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
The ending blew me away. The entire novel is amazingly beautiful. Such is the power of words. Apart from the extremely likeable characters that you immediately come to know as family, so much so that even knowing that they are destined to die from the beginning, their demise still comes as a blow, what sets this particular novel apart from the others is its narrator, Death. He tells a story of the beauty and the brutality of humankind, and is genuinely puzzled by how the same thing can be both simultaneously. He is frank and does not like suspense, but Death also has a black and heavy heart from carrying so many human souls in his arms throughout the years. Through his eyes, we get a glimpse of the benevolence and malevolence of mankind, and how words can destroy someone, or save a person's life. Yes, words move people. And through Markus Zusak's emotive and poetic writing, I was moved deeply at the end.
This book is guaranteed to step on your heart and leave its footprints ingrained in it forever.