The Thief Lord
Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord, originally published in German in 2000 and translated into English in 2002, is a beloved middle-grade adventure set in the labyrinthine streets and canals of Venice. After their mother dies, twelve-year-old Prosper and his five-year-old brother Bo are about to be split up by their cold-hearted aunt and uncle, who want only Bo and intend to send Prosper to boarding school. The brothers run away to Venice, the city their mother loved most, and quickly fall in with a small band of orphans living in an abandoned cinema known as the Stella. The Stella's leader is a masked teenage boy who calls himself the Thief Lord and seems to magically supply the children with food, money, and stolen treasures. Meanwhile a kindly private detective named Victor Getz, hired by the brothers' relatives, is on Prosper and Bo's trail, and a mysterious commission for a strange wooden wing pulls the children toward a Venetian legend about a carousel that can change a child into an adult, or an adult back into a child. Funke writes Venice with the same loving specificity Philip Pullman gives Oxford, and the book's mix of mystery, mild magic, and tender found-family warmth has made it a modern classic.
What you might want to know about The Thief Lord
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
After their mother dies, brothers Prosper and Bo run away from a Hamburg aunt who wants to keep only Bo and travel south to Venice. There they are taken in by a small gang of children living in an abandoned movie palace, led by a masked older boy who calls himself the Thief Lord and hides a secret.
The Thief Lord was written by Cornelia Funke and originally published in German in 2000. The English translation was released in 2002. Funke also wrote Inkheart and Dragon Rider. The metadata above lists BookCaps in error.
Yes. A 2006 film adaptation directed by Richard Claus was released. The film follows the novel's premise of orphan brothers running away to Venice.
The Thief Lord is 72 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Thief Lord takes most readers 1 to 2 hours to finish.
The Thief Lord is a standalone novel by BookCaps, not part of a series.
The Thief Lord is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
