【電子書】偷書賊

親愛的台灣讀者，

謝謝您閱讀了這本《偷書賊》……

我小時候常聽故事，我爸、媽常在廚房裡，把他們小時候的故事告訴我哥哥、我兩個姊姊和我，我聽了好著迷，動都不動。他們提到整個城市被火籠罩，炸彈掉在他們家附近，還有童年時期建立起的堅強友誼，連戰火、時間都無法摧殘的堅強友誼。

其中有個故事，一直留在我心裡……

我媽媽小時候住在慕尼黑近郊。她說她六歲的時候，有天聽見大街上傳來一陣嘈雜的聲音。

她跑到外面一看，發現有一群猶太人正被押解到附近的達考集中營。隊伍的最後是一位筋疲力竭的老人，快跟不上隊伍的腳步了。有個男孩子看見老人的慘狀，於是跑回家拿一片麵包給這位老人。老人感激地跪下來親吻這位少年的腳踝。結果有個士兵看見了，走過來把老人手上的麵包搶走，還用力鞭打了老人。打完之後，士兵轉身追著這個男孩，把男孩也打了一頓。在同樣的一個時刻裡，同時出現了偉大的人性尊貴與殘酷的人類暴力。我認為，這個事件恰好可以說明人性的本質。

我聽到爸媽講的這些故事之後，一直想把它們寫成一本小書。結果，就是《偷書賊》的誕生。而《偷書賊》這本書對我的意義，遠遠超過我當初的想像。對我來講，《偷書賊》就是我人生的全部。不管別人怎麼看這本書，不管他們的評價是好是壞，我自己心底曉得，這是我最好的一次創作。身為作者，當然會因為自己「最好的一次創作」而深深感到滿意。
再度感謝您，也在此祝福您。

馬格斯　二００七年六月七日

還有，老實說，我本來以為世上大概沒人會讀這本書了。我前後整整花了三年的時間才寫完，而我還一度認為，自己大概永遠寫不完了！

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To the readers of Taiwan,
Thank you for taking the time to read The Book Thief...

When I was growing up, I heard stories. I was glued to my chair in the kitchen while my mother and father told my brother, my two sisters and me what they saw when they were growing up. They told us about cities on fire, bombs falling down around their houses, and friendships that lasted through wars and time alike.

One story still resonates the most, though:

When my mother was six years old, growing up outside of Munich, there was a day when she heard a terrible noise coming from the main street of town.

When she ran to see it, she saw that Jewish people were being marched to Dachau, the concentration camp. At the back of the line, there was an old man, totally emaciated, who couldn't keep up. When a teenage boy saw this, he ran inside and brought the man a piece of bread. The man fell to his knees and kissed the boy's ankles and thanked him...Soon, a soldier noticed and walked over. He tore the bread from the man's hands and whipped him for taking it. Then he chased the boy and whipped him for giving him the bread in the first place. In one moment, there was great kindness and great cruelty, and I saw it as the perfect story of how humans are.

When I remembered those stories, I wanted to build them into a small book. The result was The Book Thief, and it came to mean much more to me than I could have imagined. This book means everything to me, and no matter what anyone ever says about this story, whether good or bad, I know it was the best I could do, and I don't think a writer can ask for more of himself than that.

Thank you again and best wisahes always, Markus

I must be honest when I say that I thought nobody would ever read this book. It took me three years and I thought I would never finish.