When it came down to it, one of them called the shots. The other did what he was told. The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one?”

“He had already cheated me in one world war, but would

later be put into another (as a perverse kind

of reward) where he would somehow

manage to avoid me again.

“The crowd was itself. There was no swaying it, squeezing through or reasoning with it. You breathed with it and you sang its songs. You waited for its fire.”

“Soon they would both be in the war. One would be making bullets. The other would be shooting them.”

“Their uniforms walked upright and their black boots further polluted the snow.”

“T H E   C O N T R A D I C T O R Y   P O L I T I C S O F   

A L E X   S T E I N E R

Point One: He was a member of the Nazi Party but he

did not hate the Jews, or anyone else for that matter.”

“In a way it was destiny.

You see, people may tell you that Nazi Germany was built on anti-Semitism, a somewhat overzealous leader and a nation of hate-fed bigots, but it would have all come to nothing had the Germans not loved one particular activity – to burn.”

“The silver in his eyes, however, wasn’t warm, like Papa’s – they’d been Führered.”

Beneath her shirt, a book was eating her up

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

“A small fact:
You are going to die….does this worry you?”

I am all bluster—
I am not violent.
I am not malicious.
I am a result.

like Alex Steiner, who stood like a human-shaped block of wood, clapping slow and dutiful. And beautiful. Submission.

On the footpath, Liesel stood with her papa and Rudy. Hans Hubermann wore a face with the shades pulled down.