Markus Zusak

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Markus Zusak

Born January 1st, 1975
Flag of Australia Sydney, New South Wales
Occupation Novelist
Website
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/author.html

Markus Zusak (born on January 1st, 1975 in Sydney) is an Australian author. He is the son of an Austrian father and German mother and he is the youngest of four children.[1]

Zusak is best known for his novels I Am The Messenger and The Book Thief. These have been very successful both in Australia and internationally, and have sold more copies and received more publicity and critical acclaim than his other novels.

In November 2006, a book video of The Book Thief was created by Jon Haller, a student at the Columbia University graduate film program and was nominated in The Book Standard's Teen Book Video Awards.[2]

Zusak lives in Sydney, with his wife and daughter and has taken up surfing.[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life

In an interview for the Sydney Morning Herald, Zusak told how as he was growing up he heard stories about Nazi Germany, the bombing of Munich and of Jews being marched through the small German town his mother lived in.[3] These stories inspired him to write The Book Thief.

Originally Zusak intended to take on his father's trade as a commercial house painter but believed he had no talent for the job. He was inspired to write after reading, and becoming enamoured with, the books The Old Man and the Sea and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, though it took seven years for his first work to be published.[2]

[edit] Awards

2007 Michael L. Printz Honor book [1] by the Young Adult Library Services Association [2]
2006 Kathleen Mitchell Award 2006 (literature)[4]
  • Fighting Ruben Wolfe
shortlisted for - Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year (Older Children)
shortlisted for - New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
2006 Michael L. Printz Award Honor book [5]
2006 Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book
2005 Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year-Children
2003 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Book Thief (Picador, 2006)
  • Getting the Girl (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003)
  • Fighting Ruben Wolfe (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001)
  • The Messenger (Random House, 2002), (published in USA as I am the Messenger)
  • When Dogs Cry (Published in the United States as "Getting the Girl") (2001)
  • The Underdog (Omnibus Books, 1999)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Markus Zusak. Lateral Learning Speakers' Agency. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  2. ^ a b c Teen Book Video Awards Debut Tonight. The Book Standard. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
  3. ^ Marcus Zusak notes. Random House. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
  4. ^ Kathleen Mitchell Award 2006 (literature). Young Adult Library Services Association. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  5. ^ 2006 Michael L. Printz Award Winner. Young Adult Library Services Association. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.

[edit] External links