The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

When her brother dies on the train while their mother takes them to live with a foster family, Liesel steals a book from the ground at his funeral. Her foster father uses this unlikely title (The Gravedigger's Handbook) to calm her when she wakes from nightmares about her brother, and to teach her to read. This extraordinary story is narrated by Death, who is takes time out of his grueling job (it is the 1930s in Germany...) to keep tabs on Liesel. You can mostly trust the hype on this one - I'm very picky, and occasionally saw the effort Zusak was making in crafting his elegant prose. But usually I was moved, and often to tears... The effect lasted for days... Zusak wrote this one for adults but it's marketed in the US for teens. IMDB says there's a movie coming out...