Markus Zusak is the internationally bestselling author of six
novels, including The Book Thief and most
recently, Bridge of Clay. His work is translated into
more than forty languages, and has spent more than a decade on
the New York Times bestseller list, establishing Zusak as
one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia.
All of Zusak’s books – including earlier titles, The
Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, When Dogs Cry (also
titled Getting the Girl), and The
Messenger (or I am the Messenger) – have been
awarded numerous honors around the world, ranging from literary
prizes to readers choice awards to prizes voted on by
booksellers.
In 2013, The Book Thief was made into a major motion
picture, and in 2018 was voted one of America’s all-time favorite
books, achieving the 14th position on the PBS Great American
Read. Also in 2018, Bridge of Clay was selected as a best
book of the year in publications ranging from Entertainment
Weekly to the Wall Street Journal.
Markus Zusak grew up in Sydney, Australia, and still lives there
with his wife and two children.
“Brilliant and hugely ambitious…Some will argue that a book so
difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers…Adults
will probably like it (this one did), but it’s a great young-adult
novel…It’s the kind of book that can be life-changing, because
without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the
natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won
hope…The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can
hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young
readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such
explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do
adults.” -New York Times, May 14, 2006
"The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately
poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like
a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may
not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a
place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne
Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a
classic."
- USA Today
"Zusak doesn’t sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly
gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in
Slaughterhouse-Five: with grim, darkly consoling humor.”
- Time Magazine
"Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important."
- Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both
length
and subject..."
- Publisher's Weekly, Starred
"One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in
years."
- The Wall Street Journal
"Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant
tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable
entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but
inhabited."
- The Horn Book Magazine, Starred
"An extraordinary narrative."
- School Library Journal, Starred
"The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also
on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger. It will be widely
read and admired because it tells a story in which books become
treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like
that."
- New York Times
This hefty volume is an achievement-a challenging book in both length and subject, and best suited to sophisticated older readers. The narrator is Death himself, a companionable if sarcastic fellow, who travels the globe "handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity." Death keeps plenty busy during the course of this WWII tale, even though Zusak (I Am the Messenger) works in miniature, focusing on the lives of ordinary Germans in a small town outside Munich. Liesel Meminger, the book thief, is nine when she pockets The Gravedigger's Handbook, found in a snowy cemetery after her little brother's funeral. Liesel's father-a "Kommunist"-is already missing when her mother hands her into the care of the Hubermanns. Rosa Hubermann has a sharp tongue, but Hans has eyes "made of kindness." He helps Liesel overcome her nightmares by teaching her to read late at night. Hans is haunted himself, by the Jewish soldier who saved his life during WWI. His promise to repay that debt comes due when the man's son, Max, shows up on his doorstep. This "small story," as Death calls it, threads together gem-like scenes of the fates of families in this tight community, and is punctuated by Max's affecting, primitive artwork rendered on painted-over pages from Mein Kampf. Death also directly addresses readers in frequent asides; Zusak's playfulness with language leavens the horror and makes the theme even more resonant-words can save your life. As a storyteller, Death has a bad habit of forecasting ("I'm spoiling the ending," he admits halfway through his tale). It's a measure of how successfully Zusak has humanized these characters that even though we know they are doomed, it's no less devastating when Death finally reaches them. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
"Brilliant and hugely ambitious...Some will argue that a book so
difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage
readers...Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it's a
great young-adult novel...It's the kind of book that can be
life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality
and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers
us a believable hard-won hope...The hope we see in Liesel is
unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty
and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to
ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter.
And so, come to think of it, do adults." -New York Times,
May 14, 2006
"The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet
ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the
reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of
life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The
Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary
of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night.
It seems poised to become a classic."
- USA Today
"Zusak doesn't sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly
gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in
Slaughterhouse-Five: with grim, darkly consoling humor."
- Time Magazine
"Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important."
- Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in
both length
and subject..."
- Publisher's Weekly, Starred
"One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in
years."
- The Wall Street Journal
"Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant
tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable
entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but
inhabited."
- The Horn Book Magazine, Starred
"An extraordinary narrative."
- School Library
Journal, Starred
"The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's
audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger.
It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in
which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a
sentiment like that."
- New York Times
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