Markus Zusak

About

Markus Zusak (born 23 June 1975) is an Australian-German writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger, two novels that became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award in 2014.

Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia. His mother Elisabeth Zusak is originally from Germany and his father Helmut Zusak is Austrian. They immigrated to Australia in the late 1950s. Zusak 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, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education.

Zusak is the author of seven 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 (I Am the Messenger in the United States), published in 2002, won the 2003 CBC Book of the Year Award (Older Readers), the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award’s Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature, and was a runner-up for the Michael L. Printz Award.
The Book Thief…