40 Fun Facts About Markus Zusak

Which unusual narrator tells Liesel Meminger's story in Markus Zusak's novel The Book Thief?

Death narrates the whole novel, and Zusak scrapped an early draft in which the narrator enjoyed his work too much before starting again.

Which instrument does Liesel's foster father Hans Hubermann play in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief?

Accordion music is Hans's gift, and he also helps Liesel learn to read, writing every word they master on a wall at home.

Which Olympic champion does Rudy Steiner imitate, blackened with charcoal, in The Book Thief?

Jesse Owens became Rudy's hero after Zusak, hunting for footballers of the era at his local library, saw the sprinter on the cover of an Olympics book.

Which composer earned an Oscar nomination for scoring the 2013 film of The Book Thief?

John Williams wrote the score, his first since 2005 for a film not directed by Steven Spielberg; it was also nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

An elderly Liesel dies in the suburbs of which city, Markus Zusak's hometown, in The Book Thief?

Sydney is where Liesel ends her long life and where Zusak was born and raised; one early page he wrote had a modern-day thief of books there.

Which American novelist co-wrote the 2022 stage musical of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief?

Jodi Picoult pitched the show to Zusak herself, promising to look after his story because a film of her own novel had changed its ending.

What job does 19-year-old Ed Kennedy hold in Markus Zusak's novel The Messenger?

Taxi driver Ed is drifting through life until cards start arriving in the mail, each sending him to strangers who need help.

The first book Liesel steals in The Book Thief is a handbook for which trade?

Grave digging is the subject of the manual, dropped by an apprentice in the cemetery; Liesel takes it before she is able to read a word.

In Bridge of Clay, pets named Agamemnon, Hector and Telemachus recall which Greek poet's heroes?

Homer runs right through the novel: the boys' mother grew up hearing the Iliad and the Odyssey, and Zusak said writing the book felt like the war itself.

Markus Zusak's mother was German; which neighbouring country did his father, Helmut, come from?

Austria was Helmut Zusak's homeland; he and Elisabeth emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s, and their wartime stories fed The Book Thief.

Where in the Hubermann house does Max Vandenburg hide from the Nazis in The Book Thief?

The basement shelters Max, and later saves Liesel, who is down there writing when bombs destroy her street.

Which Australian actor played foster father Hans Hubermann in the 2013 film of The Book Thief?

Geoffrey Rush played Hans, and one Variety critic wrote that he supplied the film's primary warmth and humour.

Director Brian Percival came to the 2013 film The Book Thief from which British period drama?

Downton Abbey won Brian Percival an Emmy for directing in 2011, two years before his film of Zusak's novel reached cinemas.

Whose private library does Liesel Meminger read in, and later steal from, in The Book Thief?

The mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, lets Liesel read in her library and later gives her a little black book in which to write her own story.

In The Book Thief, Liesel's father is taken away by the Nazis for belonging to which group?

Communists were persecuted by the regime, so Liesel's mother gives her children up to foster care to keep them safe.

In which German town do Hans and Rosa Hubermann live in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief?

Molching is where Rosa takes in washing and ironing for wealthier households, the errand that first brings Liesel to a private library.

Hans Hubermann's Nazi-supporting son in The Book Thief is sent to fight in which wartime battle?

Stalingrad is where Hans Junior ends up after frequent rows with his father over the son's devotion to the Nazi party.

Which actress won a worldwide search to play Liesel Meminger in the 2013 film of The Book Thief?

Sophie Nélisse, a Canadian who had trained as a gymnast, won the part and later starred in the series Yellowjackets.

The Book Thief runs past 500 pages, but what did Markus Zusak first expect the novel to be?

A short novella of about 100 pages was the plan, and Zusak also expected it to be the least successful book he had written.

Markus Zusak based a truck crash that spares Hans Hubermann on the wartime luck of which relative?

His grandfather refused to give up a seat on a truck that later overturned, killing the man who had demanded it; gentle Hans gives his seat away instead.

What job did Markus Zusak briefly do at Engadine High, his old school, while writing?

Teaching English paid the bills, and a writing exercise on colour that he set one class gave him the first passages of The Book Thief.

What was the title of Markus Zusak's 2014 TEDx talk about drafting The Book Thief?

The Failurist traced his drafting process and his road to success, a road that ran through several abandoned versions of the novel.

Which American Library Association career honour did Markus Zusak receive in 2014?

The Margaret Edwards Award honoured four of his books at once and made him one of the few winners from outside the United States.

The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger were both honor books for which American young adult prize?

The Printz Award list names Zusak as an honor author in both 2006 and 2007, though he did not take the medal in either year.

What is the title of Markus Zusak's first novel, a 1999 story narrated by teenager Cameron Wolfe?

The Underdog reached print years after Zusak's first manuscript, written when he was 18, had been turned down by five publishers.

Which sport do brothers Cameron and Ruben take up for money in Markus Zusak's Fighting Ruben Wolfe?

Boxing earns the brothers cash for their struggling family but little glamour, and the novel was a Children's Book Council of Australia honour book in 2001.

Under which title was Markus Zusak's novel When Dogs Cry published in the United States?

Getting the Girl was the American title; the original, When Dogs Cry, is also the name of a poem Cameron writes in the book.

Ed Kennedy becomes a local hero in The Messenger after accidentally foiling which crime?

A bank robbery is foiled in the opening chapter, which Zusak said felt so Australian that he wanted any screen version made at home.

Which playing card is the first to reach Ed Kennedy by mail in Markus Zusak's The Messenger?

The Ace of Diamonds bears three addresses and three times of day, the first of four aces that each set Ed a round of tasks.

What is the name of the dog Ed Kennedy inherits from his father in The Messenger?

The Doorman is later stolen from a football match, and Ed buys him back from a boy who hands over the next card.

Which final card reaches Ed Kennedy bearing his own address in Markus Zusak's The Messenger?

A joker ends the sequence, and soon a man implied to be Zusak himself turns up in Ed's house claiming to have arranged it all.

Which Australian broadcaster made an eight-part TV series of Markus Zusak's The Messenger?

ABC landed the series because Zusak turned down several Hollywood offers, insisting the story be filmed in Australia.

The Quarryman, a book Clay Dunbar treasures in Markus Zusak's Bridge of Clay, is about which artist?

Michelangelo fascinates Clay, who leaves the book with his neighbour Carey before going to help his father, so that he has to come back for it.

By what grim nickname do the Dunbar brothers know their absent father in Bridge of Clay?

The Murderer is what the boys call the father who walked out after their mother's cancer, and who returns asking for help to build a bridge.

Which member of the Dunbar family narrates Markus Zusak's 2018 novel Bridge of Clay?

Matthew, the eldest of five brothers, became the narrator only after Zusak spent six years telling the story through a character called Maggie.

Which instrument, bought by Penny Dunbar, is delivered to her future husband in Bridge of Clay?

Piano delivery goes astray: it arrives at the home of a man further down the same street, which is how the Dunbar boys' parents meet.

In Bridge of Clay, which career is Clay Dunbar's neighbour and love interest Carey Novac pursuing?

Jockey Carey meets Clay every Saturday night at an abandoned stables called the Surrounds to talk over the week's races.

Markus Zusak's first non-fiction book is a memoir about his family taking in which animals?

Rescue dogs named Reuben, Archer and Frosty, all big and pound-hardened, are the stars of Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth).

Which British actress played foster mother Rosa Hubermann in the 2013 film of The Book Thief?

Emily Watson played Rosa, and a Variety critic called her pitch-perfect as a scold with a well-buried soft side.

Rudy Steiner's hair in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is described as the colour of which fruit?

Lemon is the colour Zusak gives Rudy's hair; the boy looks like the regime's ideal German, yet he does not support the Nazis, even when party officials try to recruit him.