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Markus Zusak

Author of The Book Thief

17+ Works 54,230 Members 2,547 Reviews 199 Favorited

About the Author

Markus Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia on June 23, 1975. He began writing at the age of 16, and seven years later his first book, The Underdog, was published. He is best known for his young adult novels The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger, both of which are Michael L. Printz Honor books. The show more Book Thief was adapted into a movie. His next book, Bridge of Clay was published October 2018. It won 2019 Indie Book Awards for Debut Fiction and Book of the Year. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo by Bronnwyn Rennix

Series

Works by Markus Zusak

Associated Works

The Book Thief [2013 film] (2013) — Original story — 356 copies
The Book That Made Me (2016) — Contributor — 72 copies

Tagged

audiobook (135) Australia (302) Australian (206) book club (179) books (514) books about books (239) coming of age (368) death (908) ebook (168) family (263) favorite (122) favorites (316) fiction (3,476) friendship (367) Germany (1,383) historical (371) historical fiction (1,965) history (254) Holocaust (1,634) Jews (450) Kindle (163) literature (157) love (124) mystery (267) Nazi (183) Nazi Germany (448) Nazis (253) novel (373) own (203) Printz Honor (130) read (476) reading (177) teen (158) to-read (2,835) unread (141) war (439) WWII (2,532) YA (1,007) young adult (1,523) young adult fiction (255)

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Zusak, Markus Frank
Birthdate
1975-06-23
Gender
male
Nationality
Australia
Birthplace
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Places of residence
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Education
Engadine High School
University of New South Wales (BA) (English and History)
University of New South Wales (DiplEd)
Occupations
janitor
high school English teacher
novelist
Awards and honors
Margaret A. Edwards Award (2014)
NSW Premier's Literary Award (Ethel Turner Prize) (2003)
Kathleen Mitchell Award 2006 (literature) (2006)
National Jewish Book Award (Children's and Young Adult Literature) (2006)
Ena Noel Award – the IBBY Australia Ena Noël Encouragement Award for Children's Literature (2008)
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature (2003) (show all 13)
Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award (2003)
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year-Children (2005)
Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book (2006)
Printz Award Honor Book (2006)
Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis [translate: German Youth Literature Prize] (2007)
Honour Book, CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers (2002)
Honour Book, CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers (2001)
Short biography
According to his publisher, Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small, German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
By the age of 30, Zusak had already asserted himself as one of today’s most innovative and poetic novelists. With the publication of The Book Thief, he was dubbed a ‘literary phenomenon’ by Australian and U.S. critics.

Markus Zusak (born 23 June 1975) is an Australian writer of German origin. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger (US title: I Am the Messenger), two novels which became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2014.

Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia. His mother Lisa is originally from Germany and his father Helmut is from Austria. They emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s. Markus is the youngest of four children and has two sisters and one brother. He attended Engadine High School and briefly returned there to teach English while writing. He studied English and history at the University of New South Wales, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education.

Zusak is the author of six books. His first three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and When Dogs Cry, released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally. The Messenger, published in 2002, won the 2003 CBC Book of the Year Award (Older Readers) and the 2003 NSW Premier's Literary Award (Ethel Turner Prize) in Australia and was a runner-up for the Printz Award in America.

The Book Thief was published in 2005 and has since been translated into more than 40 languages. The Book Thief was adapted as a film of the same name in 2013. In 2014, Zusak delivered a Ted Talk, called 'The Failurist' at the Sydney Opera House. It focused on his drafting process and journey to success through writing The Book Thief.

The Messenger (I Am the Messenger in the United States) was published in 2002 and was one of Zusak's first novels. This novel has won awards such as the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards: Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature.

In March 2016 Zusak talked about his then unfinished novel Bridge of Clay. He stated that the book was 90% finished but that, "... I’m a completely different person than the person who wrote The Book Thief. And this is also the scary thing—I’m a different person to the one who started Bridge of Clay eight, nine years ago ... I’ve got to get it done this year, or else I’ll probably finally have to set it aside."

Members

Discussions

Shared Read: The Book Thief in The 12 in 12 Category Challenge (March 2012)
"The Book Thief" Spoiler-Free Discussion in Hogwarts Express (April 2010)
The Book Thief (with spoileers) in Hogwarts Express (May 2009)

Reviews

For how tragic and emotionally heavy this book is, it was such an enjoyable read. I guess that's because majority of the book is very light hearted; the author explores childhood, friendship and bonding. A very good read, but a tad bit too lengthy.
 
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buddhawithan.n | 2,117 other reviews | Feb 29, 2024 |
What can I say about this book? Before I begin, let me say that I have no inclination of spoilers, so POSSIBLE SPOILERS are ahead, read at your own risk.

I wasn't sure what to think when I started this book. I was worried I wouldn't like it, but then Death started to narrate the story and I was already hooked because I do love the one we call "the Grim Reaper". I didn't know how the story was going to go because I didn't read the synopsis before starting this book - crazy, I know.

I've never considered myself a history buff - history is quite boring to me most of the time, but seeing the words of this story laid out before me, even though it's fiction, describing what once took place so long ago in Germany... I feel wrong saying it intrigues me because I know many people suffered, but I'd be lying if I said otherwise. As an avid reader and writer, I felt a connection to Liesel as she struggled to learn how to read and write, before soon taking books and making them her own children. I became attached to the characters - I could feel them, as if they were standing before me, their stories and lives playing out like a movie before my eyes.

Markus Zusak is a true wordsmith. He brought life to words on a page, gave them feeling and a home. I didn't feel like I was reading a book, I felt as if I were there, experiencing it in real-time alongside the characters. What a magical experience it was. I worried when I first started the book because I had 7 days to read it, and it's quite a thick one - over 550 pages long. I feared it would be boring and I'd struggle to finish it in time, but my worries proved to be nothing more than just that. I didn't want to stop reading. I kept thinking about the book and the characters as I did other things. It feels as if I just started the book. It doesn't feel as if I just read 550 pages full of words.

I won't lie - this book hit me hard and I did cry. As I've said before, it doesn't take much to make me sob like a little bitch, but even so, it was like this book shot straight into my heart, clutching at it and holding it softly in its arms, just as Death had with all those he took during his time. I'd like to end off with a chopped up quote, but it isn't from the book itself, but from an addition from the author at the back. Even so, it hit me hard because I didn't even consider this as I read through this part of the story.

"The text of Mein Kampf bled through to show the story of Max and Liesel's friendship strangling the words of Hitler. He would paint over the pages. He and Liesel would write stories of friendship over Hitler's words of hate."

Words can not even express how this book touched me. An absolutely breathtaking read and highly recommended.
… (more)
 
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AnnoyingTiger888 | 2,117 other reviews | Feb 21, 2024 |
 
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BooksInMirror | 2,117 other reviews | Feb 19, 2024 |
 
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Lists

Europe (1)

Awards

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Statistics

Works
17
Also by
2
Members
54,230
Popularity
#279
Rating
½ 4.3
Reviews
2,547
ISBNs
488
Languages
30
Favorited
199

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