Since this book takes place in Nazi Germany during WW2, the characters don't speak English at times. Some of the dialogue in the book is written in German, then it has the translation usually in the next two or three sentences.
Most of the words that are in German in the book are cuss words, but sometimes they're not. For example, a word that isn't a cuss word in the German language is "Mein Kampf" which translates to "My Struggle" and it it also the book that Hitler wrote. (To learn more about this, look at one of my earlier posts about the historical references.) Other German words that are used in The Book Thief are "schimpferei" which translates to "scolding" and "Führer" which translates to "leader" and in modern days is more commonly associated with Hitler.
Although there are some German words in the book, I do not think that the book is a difficult read, vocabulary wise. I am able to understand what is going on most of the time, once I got past the beginning and introductory parts of the book. So far, it is a really good book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.
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