Shortlisted for British Book Awards: Waterstones Newcomer of the Year Award 2008 and Independent Booksellers' Week Book of the Year Award: Children's Book of the Year 2007 and YoungMinds Book Award 2007.

"Extraordinary, resonant and relevant, beautiful and angry." -- Lisa Hilton Sunday Telegraph "...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." Guardian "A moving work which will make many eyes brim." -- Marianne Brace Independent on Sunday "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." -- Lianne Kolirin The Daily Express "Brilliant and hugely ambitious ... the kind of book that could be life-changing" New York Times Book Review

Markus Zusak was born in 1975 and is the author of five books, including I Am the Messenger and the international bestseller, The Book Thief, which is translated into more than forty languages. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.