Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak 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.

Early life

Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia. His mother Lisa 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.

Career

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, published in 2002, won the 2003 CBC Book of the Year Award, 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 was published in 2005 and has since been translated into more than 40 languages. The Book Thief was adapted into a film of the same name in 2013. In 2014, Zusak delivered a talk called "The Failurist" at TEDxSydney at the Sydney Opera House. It focused on his drafting process and journey to success through writing The Book Thief.
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." It was finally released in October 2018.
A TV series based on The Messenger premiered on ABC in 2023. Zusak said his next book would be a "memoir type thing" and not fiction. In 2024, he put this into practice through publishing Three Wild Dogs .

Awards

In 2006, Zusak received The Sydney Morning Herald Young Australian Novelist of the Year Award. In 2014, he won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association, which annually recognises an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".
Bridge of Clay is a Junior Library Guild selection.
In 2005, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and Publishers Weekly named I Am the Messenger one of the best children's books of the year.

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result
2001	Fighting Ruben Wolfe	Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers	—	Honor
2001	Fighting Ruben Wolfe	New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Ethel Turner Prize	Shortlist
2002	When Dogs Cry	Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers	—	Honor
2003	The Messenger	Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers	—	Winner
2003	The Messenger	New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Ethel Turner Prize	Winner
2006	The Messenger	Michael L. Printz Award	—	Honor
2007	The Messenger	Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis	Jugendjury	Winner
2006	The Book Thief	Cybils Award	Young Adult Fiction	Finalist
2006	The Book Thief	Kathleen Mitchell Award	—	Winner
2006	The Book Thief	National Jewish Book Award	Children's and Young Adult Literature	Winner
2007	The Book Thief	Michael L. Printz Award	—	Honor
2008	The Book Thief	Ena Noël Award for Encouragement	—	Winner
2009	The Book Thief	Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis	Jugendjury	Winner
2014	Fighting Ruben Wolfe When Dogs Cry The Messenger The Book Thief	Margaret Edwards Award	—	Selected

Publications

Standalone books

''The Underdog'' trilogy
Non-fiction