This article examines how the magic realist strategy of inversion facilitates the representation of the reality of the Holocaust in Markus Zusak’s YA novel The Book Thief. Inversion is achieved by representing the events from the perspective of the other-worldly character, Death. Death provides the child reader with a means to unfold historical events by gradually opening up the layers of inverted reality. The layers examined are supernatural as natural, humans as ghosts, the real as surreal, and finally, on the deepest level of inversion, readers interpret life during the Holocaust as death. It is not the fantastic that causes fear or horror, but the real: war, violence and human hatred. The technique of inversion overturns beliefs about reality, normalcy and humanity. Focusing on the reversal of the real and the magical this paper explores the ways in which Death’s inverted narrative helps the young reader to discover the humanity of the humans who were dehumanized by the war, while still pointing to the inhumanity of genocide.