Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Markus Zusak's novels include Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting The Girl , I Am The Messenger, The Book Thief and Bridge of Clay. He received the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year Award for I Am the Messenger. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children.
Markus Zusak's website
This bio was last updated on 10/01/2018. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
A conversation with Markus Zusak about The Book Thief
Q: What inspired you to write about a hungry, illiterate girl who has
such a desire to read that she steals books?
A: I think it's just working on a book over and over again. I heard stories of
cities on fire, teenagers who were whipped for giving starving Jewish people
bread on their way to concentration camps, and people huddled in bomb
shelters. . . . But I also had a story about a book thief set in my hometown
of Sydney. I just brought the two ideas together and realized the importance
of words in Nazi Germany. I thought of Hitler destroying people with
words, and now I had a girl who was stealing them back, as she read books
with the young Jewish man in her basement and calmed people down in
the bomb shelters. She writes her own story–and it's a beautiful story–
through the ugliness of the world that surrounds her.
Q: How did you decide to make Death the narrator of the book?
A: With great difficulty! I thought, "Here's a book set during war. Everyone
says war and death are best friends." Death is ever-present during war, so
here was the perfect choice to narrate The Book Thief. At first, though,
Death was too mean. He was ...
Atia Abawi was born to Afghan parents in West Germany and was raised in the United States. She graduated from Virginia Tech and was awarded their Outstanding Alumna honor. After college, Abawi worked for CNN as a foreign news... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Book Thief
Try:
A Land of Permanent Goodbyes
by Atia Abawi
Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of many highly acclaimed works of nonfiction, including A Natural History of the Senses -- a book beloved by readers all over the world and the volumes Deep Play, A... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Book Thief
Try:
The Zookeeper's Wife
by Diane Ackerman
We recommend 27 similar authors
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
