Reader's Ink discussion

5. The Grave Digger's Handbook is the first book that Liesel steals. What is significant about the titles of the books she steals?

(Other titles include: The Whistler, The Shoulder Shrug, The Dream Carrier and The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus.)

I think Gravedigger is intended to be a bit ironic, because the text is very practical and simple, using words to detail the most basic part of death: dealing with the physical body. Having the vastness of death justaposed with how to dig a hole shows how slippery language can be. Words obviously are wielded elsewhere to cause genocide. I think it's apporpriate that Liesel's first book is this basic, simple way of meeting death head-on.