This hefty volume is an achievement-challenging book in both length and subject, and best suited for sophisticated older readers. The narrator is Death himself, a companionable if sarcastic fellow, who travels the globe. Death keeps plenty busy during the course of this WWII tale, even though Zusak works in miniature, focusing on the lives of ordinary Germans in a small town outside Munich. Liesel Meminger, the book thief, is nine when she pockets The Gravedigger's Handbook, found in a snowy cemetery after her little brother's funeral. Liesel's father is already missing when her mother hands her into the care of the Hubermanns. Rosa Hubermann has a sharp tongue, but Hans Hubermann, who has eyes "made of kindness," helps Liesel overcome her nightmares by teaching her to read late at night. This "small story," as Death calls it, threads together gemlike scenes of the fates of families in this tight community. Zusak's playfulness with language leavens the horror and makes the theme even more resonant. [PW 01/30/06] Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Australian author Markus Zusak was born in Sydney on June 23, 1975. He began writing at the age of 16, and seven years later his first book, The Underdog, was published.

Zusak is best known for his award-winning young adult novels The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger, both of which have been successful internationally and are Michael L. Printz Honor books.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.