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Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak: what you need to know

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5 things you need to know about Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief

TikTok made me buy it! The life-affirming international bestseller

TikTok made me buy it! The life-affirming reader favourite

Film tie-in

The worldwide bestselling hit in a new edition, including a heartstopping chapter from the author's brand new literary novel BRIDGE OF CLAY

Extraordinary, resonant and relevant, beautiful and angry.

...a beautifully balanced piece of storytelling...Unsettling, thought-provoking, life affirming, triumphant and tragic, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told. It is an important piece of work, but also a wonderful page-turner.

A moving work which will make many eyes brim.

This is a weighty novel worthy of universal acclaim. A sense of dread prevades this beautifully written novel. As The Book Thief draws to a close, Death says: "There's a multitude of stories that i allow to distract me as I work." The story of the Book Thief, who tried to change the world in her own small way, proves one formidable and inspiring distraction.

Brilliant and hugely ambitious ... the kind of book that could be life-changing

...a fantastic book...it packs a huge emotional punch.

Angela Lockton, The Golden Treasury, London

A tonic much needed amid the ominous menace of an era of such calamity.

His faith in the transformative power of storytelling bestows this gentle but worthwhile novel with its own narrative strength and power.

Deserves a place on the shelf with The Diary of Anne Frank - set to become a classic

Zusak makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable in the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse 5, with grim, darkly consoling humour

Zusak's playfulness with language leavens the horror and makes the theme more resonant - words can save your life ...It's a measure of how sucessfully Zusak has humanized these characters that even though we know they are doomed, it's no less devastating when Death finally reaches them

One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years

'Elegant, philosophical and moving. A work to read slowly and savour. Beautiful and important

Both gripping and touching, a work that kept me up late into the night feverishly reading the last 300 pages

Zusak's novel is a highwire act of inventiveness and emotional suppleness

A triumph of control ...one of the most unusual and compelling of recent Australian novels

...the much talked about The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak...should soon have the UK under its spell.

...this is a novel to touch even the coldest of hearts - definitely 2007's first must-read book.

A compelling tale from the start...definitely 2007's first must-read book.

A moving story from the German perspective of everyday civilian hardship and surivival under the Third Reich. It celebrates the power of words and love, in the face of unutterable suffering

Death turns out to be a tender narrator in Zusak's 'The Book Thief' [...] This novel movingly depicts the Himmel Street community, and its orphaned book thief, Liesel Meminger

Your emotions by the end of this novel are shot to pieces, but it's well worth it.

Although already a bestselling children's book, THE BOOK THIEF's insightful and poignant tone and appealing characters...are amply equipped to capture adults, too.

MARKUS ZUSAK is the bestselling author of six novels, including THE BOOK THIEF. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, to both popular and critical acclaim. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two children. 
Find Markus on his blog www.zusakbooks.com 
Facebook /markuszusak 
Instagram @markuszusak 
 
 
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'Life affirming, triumphant and tragic . . . masterfully told. . . but also a wonderful page-turner' Guardian 
'Brilliant and hugely ambitious' New York Times 
'Extraordinary' Telegraph 
___ 
HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE 
 
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. 
 Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. 
 
SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH 
___ 
 
What readers are saying about The Book Thief: 
 
***** 'I loved every page of this book. So many great quotes, observations on humanity and images...I just didn't want it to end. 
***** 'I loved this book. It is not only one of the best I've read this year, it is one of the best I've ever read.' 
***** 'This is the sort of book the restores your faith in humanity and leaves you feeling uplifted, even when it makes you shed a tear.

Film Tie-in Enhanced Edition

The New York Times #1 bestselling modern classic about courage, rebellion and the enduring power of books

The New York Times #1 bestselling modern classic about courage, rebellion and the enduring power of books 
 
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION with exclusive extra behind-the-scenes material from the author 
 
It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier - and will become busier still. 
 
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library . . . wherever there are books to be found. 
 
But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again. 
 
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. 
 
Now a major film from Twentieth-Century Fox starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson. 
 
'Life affirming, triumphant and tragic’ Guardian

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION with exclusive extra behind-the-scenes material from the author 
 
It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier - and will become busier still. 
 
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library . . . wherever there are books to be found. 
 
But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again. 
 
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. 
 
Now a major film from Twentieth-Century Fox starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson.

I Am the Messenger

A darkly funny thriller from the author of The Book Thief

Zusak's fascination with morality and culpability is writ large throughout this pacy page turner

From the author of The Book Thief comes this darkly funny and ultimately uplifting thriller which proves that anyone can be extraordinary. 
 
Ed Kennedy is just your less-than-average Joe who is hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. But after he single-handedly manages to catch a bank robber, he receives a playing card in the mail: the Ace of Diamonds. This is the first message. Four more will follow. But before this particular card game can end, Ed will be changed forever . . . 
 
Will Audrey love the man he has become?

Fighting Ruben Wolfe

A fantastic book about fighting against the odds from the author of The Book Thief.

Written with a spare, gritty authenticity, this is a compelling and refreshingly brief novel by the author of the bestselling The Book Thief.

Originally published in Zusak's native Australia three years before the hugely successful The Book Thief hit these shores, Fighting Ruben Wolfe is a lithe and affecting short novel about two brothers who become lured into the seedy underbelly of an illegal boxing ring in order to make some money to help out their parents. With echoes of the vulnerable and questioning first person narrative of The Outsiders, this is a fiery and ruminative novel for young teenagers.

Gritty novella about tough lives in tough neighbourhoods at tough economic times. Short, sharp and punchy, it has moments of savage humour and pure pathos. There's poetry in every life - even when it's seeped in violence.

An impressive and heartwarming story of fraternal and familial bonding.

I say, 'Don't lose your heart, Rube.' And very clearly, without moving, my brother answers me. He says, 'I'm not tryin' to lose it, Cam. I'm tryin' to find it.' 
 
The Wolfe brothers know how to fight. They've been fighting all their lives. Now there's something more at stake than just winning. 
 
A powerful, poignant novel from the author of the international bestseller, The Book Thief.

The Underdog

The uplifting debut novel from Markus Zusak, author of the international bestseller, The Book Thief.

My name’s Cameron Wolfe. I have a little bit of sense. I don’t have much sense. My older brother Ruben gets me into plenty of trouble. I get Rube into as much trouble as he gets me into. I have a family, yes, that doesn’t really function without tomato sauce. That’s me. 
 
Cameron and Ruben Wolfe are brothers. They spend most of their time throwing one-handed boxing matches (they only have the one pair of gloves) and plotting to rob the local dentists. But what Cameron really wants is to meet a girl – a real girl, not like the ones in the lingerie magazines. But who could ever love an underdog like Cameron Wolfe?

Getting the Girl

The final book in the Underdogs series, from bestselling author of The Book Thief, Markus Zusak.

Rube never loved any of them. He never cared about any of them. He just wanted each one because she was next, and why not take the next thing if it was better than the last? Needless to say, Rube and I aren't too much alike when it comes to women. 
 
Cameron and Ruben have always been loyal brothers, but that loyalty is about to be tested to the limit when Cam falls for Octavia - Rube's latest girlfriend. Will he get the girl? Will his love for her tear their brotherly bond apart? And would Octavia ever go for a guy like him anyway?

Markus Zusak

[Zusak] flings his readers straight into the deep end of his new vast, teeming novel . . . Warm and heartfelt . . . This is a tale of love, art and redemption; rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and insight, and ultimately moving.

If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show... [its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life.

This vast novel is a feast of language and irony. There is sly wit on every page... it is hard not to fall a bit in love with it.

Bridge of Clay has been more than a decade in the making, and it shows: The characters are clearly loved, and the artistry of language will leave you gasping at times.

Devastating, demanding and deeply moving, Bridge of Clay unspools like a kind of magic act in reverse

Eleven years after his multi-million selling hit The Book Thief, Zusak has returned with this sweeping and compelling family tale... Give it your time and you'll be repaid with a moving and epic read.

Bridge of Clay is one of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time into another family's experience in the most profound way.

Exquisitely written ... A sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt's manifestations

A captivating book with a mighty, fearless heart, Bridge of Clay is filled with characters to believe in and care about ... achingly moving, delightfully funny, and thoroughly uplifting.

M L STEDMAN, bestselling author of THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS

This epic family saga is a sweeping reflection on love and loss etched in vibrant writing, vivid characterisations and heartfelt emotion . . . A book to lose yourself in on long autumn nights.

Markus Zusak crafts an unforgettable saga.

In a complex narrative that leaps through time and place and across oceans, Zusak paints a vivid portrait of the brothers trying to regain their balance by keeping their family’s story alive.

If The Book Thief is his most famous book, Bridge of Clay is his magnum opus.

[A] journey in a unique circumnavigatory style, blending past and present until we reach its heart-wrenching conclusion… The prose sings with spunky originality.

A sweeping story following the five Dunbar brothers through times of grief, love, and anger, Bridge of Clay is a time-jumping, dreamlike exploration of family.

The redemptive, joyous bestseller by the author of THE BOOK THIEF

‘Achingly moving, delightfully funny, and thoroughly uplifting.’ M L STEDMAN, author of THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS 
‘This book BLEW ME AWAY' JODI PICOULT 
‘Rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and insight, and ultimately moving’ TIMES 
 ___ 
 
 Our mother was dead. Our father had fled 
 
Five Dunbar brothers are living – fighting, loving, grieving – in the perfect chaos of a house without grown-ups. 
 
This is a family rocked by tragedy and long buried secrets. To understand his family’s story, Matthew Dunbar must travel to find three things. A lost typewriter -- A dead dog -- The bones of the snake that killed it. 
 
He will learn of a mother who crosses continents for a new home; of a father searching for love in the keys of an old piano; and, finally, of a brother named Clay, who will make the most challenging journey of them all, and change their lives for ever. 
___ 
 
Readers love Bridge of Clay: 
 
***** ‘Page upon glorious page left my heart bruised, but gratefully beating’ 
***** ‘A book rarely touches me so emotionally’ 
***** ‘Original, compelling and richly resonant’ 
 
 
'One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time' WASHINGTON POST 
'This book blew me away' JODI PICOULT 
'Devastating, demanding, deeply moving' WALL STREET JOURNAL 
'Moving and epic' STYLIST

Markus Zusak

Praise for Bridge of Clay

[Zusak] flings his readers straight into the deep end of his new vast, teeming novel . . . Warm and heartfelt . . . This is a tale of love, art and redemption; rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and ...

If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show... [its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life.

The wait is over.

[Zusak] flings his readers straight into the deep end of his new vast, teeming novel . . . Warm and heartfelt . . . This is a tale of love, art and redemption; rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and ...

If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show... [its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life.

The wait is over.

[Zusak] flings his readers straight into the deep end of his new vast, teeming novel . . . Warm and heartfelt . . . This is a tale of love, art and redemption; rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and ...

If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show... [its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life.

The wait is over.

Books by Markus Zusak

Series by Markus Zusak

Underdogs

Articles featuring Markus Zusak

The best books for book lovers

5 things you need to know about Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

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