I Am the Messenger

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I Am the Messenger is a 2003 novel by Markus Zusak, and winner of the 2003 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award.

I Am The Messenger was released in Australia under the name The Messenger.

Plot: The story begins with Ed Kennedy, a low down underage taxi driver who is the basic definition of normality. He is trapped in the middle of a bank robbery with his friends Marv, Ritchie and Audrey, who he is madly in love with. The scene is actually very comedic. The entire story is written through Ed's eyes while he's telling us the story and adding his own commentary as the story progresses. The beginning line of the story is "The gunman is useless." Ed knows that the gunman, described to be very ugly and having red whiskers, is useless and panicky. Marv and Ed get into a discussion about Marv's broken down, old car which Ed constantly harasses him about. This attracts the attention of the gunman who tells the two to shut up. Ed's friend Ritchie starts talking and now the gunman starts getting angered. At one point, he sees his getaway car escape because the police have stopped him for double parking. Nervous, the gunman takes Marv's keys to his car. As he leaves, the gunman drops his gun, after hesitation, he leaves it there. While the gunman is having trouble starting the car, Ed leaves, grabs the gun and shoots the window out of the car. Police come and Ed is claimed as a hero for stopping the bank robbery.Then he receives the first Ace in the mail, which is a surprise to him. His tasks are:

1. He must save a woman who is raped by her husband every night. 2. He must comfort a lonely old lady. 3. He must show a teenage girl how to take control of her life, instead of having her father do so.

Ed continues to receive similar messages and he continues helping to make the lives of people in his town more enjoyable.

After his tasks one question remains. Who is sending the Aces?

The Messenger raises many questions relating to the path that the lives of people like Ed and his friends will take, but still remains very humorous and distinctively Australian. Zusak's characters in this novel are incredibly easy to relate to and he very accurately describes life in suburban Australia. Ed's relationship with his mother is also indicitive of many family situations in middle class families in Australia and modern Western society. The reader can also relate strongly to Ed's feeling of lack of direction or hope of making something of his life. Without forgetting The Messenger's intelligent, suspenseful narrative and break-neck narrative pace, Zusak has in this novel shown his mastery of characterisation. The novel is blissfully without the shallow, stereotypical supporting characters of other novels of similar theme and every individual is developed with depth and intrigue. Along with the striking descriptions with which Zusak depicts The Messenger, he manages to also take a step back and give an intelligent, subjective view of reality.