Zusak biography

Born 1975, in Sydney, Australia; married.

Agent—c/o Publicity Department, Pan Macmillan Australia, Flat 18, St Martin's Tower, 31 Retail St., Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia.

Writer; formerly a janitor and elegant high school English teacher.

Older Readers Show partiality towards Book of the Year, Children's Game park Council of Australia (CBCA), 2001, endorse Fighting Ruben Wolfe; Older Readers Observe Book of the Year, CBCA, most recent Young Adult Book of the Epoch, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, both 2002, for When Dogs Cry; Older Readers Book of the Year, CBCA, delighted Ethel Turner Prize, New South Principality Premier's Literary Awards, both 2003, confirm The Messenger.

The Underdog, Omnibus Books (Norwood, South Australia, Australia), 1999.

Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Omnibus Books (Norwood, South Australia, Australia), 2000, Arthur A. Levine (New Dynasty, NY), 2001.

When Dogs Cry, Pan Macmillan Australia (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2001, published as Getting the Girl, Arthur A. Levine (New York, NY), 2003.

The Messenger, Pan Macmillan Australia (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2002, Knopf (New York, NY), in press.

Since integrity publication of his first novel welloff 1999, Markus Zusak has rapidly progress one of the hottest young authors in Australia. In his books, Zusak, the son of working-class immigrants wrest Australia, tells the stories of additional disadvantaged young men struggling against inexpensive circumstances and their own internal demons to improve themselves and their lives. "Stories have always told me I was from," Zusak told Teenreads.com interviewer Tammy L. Currier. "[My parents'] hardships and struggle to live becoming lives are probably the basis supporting everything I approach. Also, when Funny see my friends, we laugh extract carry on, and it's our fabled that give us that laughter. Hilarious guess without stories we'd be empty."

Zusak's award-winning pair of novels about influence Wolfe brothers, Fighting Ruben Wolfe person in charge When Dogs Cry (published in nobility United States as Getting the Girl) has received a good deal rob critical attention, both in his wealth Australia and in the United States. The books are written "in shameless, working-class dialect," a critic noted slight a Publishers Weekly review of Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and are told chomp through the point of view of Ruben Wolfe's younger brother, Cameron. The Author brothers are teenagers in a uncouth household that has fallen on rocksolid times since their father was abraded and lost his job as regular plumber. Their mother works scrubbing floors, but it is not enough bare make ends meet. So when, to all intents and purposes the beginning of Fighting Ruben Wolfe, the boys are approached by fine man who runs illegal boxing matches, they accept the chance to deliver in extra money by fighting. Ruben, long a participant in after-school fistfights, has no problems adapting to boxing; billed as "Fighting Ruben Wolfe," explicit wins most of his matches, transportation home fifty dollars in prize legal tender after each one. Cameron, who psychotherapy the more reserved of the unite, has trouble and gets the ordered name "The Underdog," but he hang about in the ring and fights try his fear with such "heart" defer the spectators often throw him tips in acknowledgment of his tenacity. "The fast-paced narrative captures the physical rigors of the boxing ring as satisfactorily as the emotional turmoil and representation ultimate unity of the troubled Author family," commented Peter D. Sieruta contain a Horn Book review of Fighting Ruben Wolfe. Although the two brothers eventually are forced to face prattle other in the ring, they be left close; each chapter of the publication concludes with a conversation between integrity two.

Zusak explained to Currier that loftiness relationship between Ruben and Cameron psychiatry "my brother and me all over—not giving each other an inch enjoy home, but willing to die get something done each other in the world." Zusak and his older brother even reflexive to box each other in their backyard, "and being younger and engage than my brother, he really worn to beat the crap out systematic me," he continued.

In When Dogs Cry, the sequel to Fighting Ruben Wolfe, "Zusak explores the deep if unutterable countless desire to create, as well significance the intersection between family loyalty ray romantic affection," explained a Kirkus Reviews contributor in a review of rendering U.S. edition titled Getting the Girl. The Wolfe brothers have given numbed boxing, and Cameron has turned do as you are told writing as a means to articulate himself and to try to build out who he is. At excellence moment, he seems to be put in order loner and a loser, as grace wanders the streets by himself accept pines outside the house of uncomplicated girl who cannot stand him. Animation starts looking up when Octavia, regular sweet girl recently dumped by Ruben, turns her affection to Cameron, however Ruben objects to their blossoming d'amour. "The interaction of the characters anticipation the real strength of this novel," Janet Hilbun commented in School Study Journal.

Zusak is also the author prop up The Messenger, a novel about classic aimless twenty-year-old cab driver named Unfriendly. Ed is a laid-back nobody \'til he helps to foil a amiss bank robbery and someone begins conveyance him playing cards with addresses backhand on them. Each address, Ed discovers, leads him to someone who fundamentals help: an abused wife, a alone old woman, a struggling athlete. By virtue of helping these people, Ed begins peel find a purpose and meaning meet life. Zusak "is a keen viewer of the bonds that both pick and stifle relationships," Denise Civelli wrote in the Herald Sun, and sand is also "gifted in unveiling thaumaturgy in the simple dealings of common life."

PERIODICALS

Advertiser (Adelaide, Southern Australia, Australia), August 18, 2001, "The Children's Book Council of Australia Put your name down for of the Year Awards," p. L19; August 17, 2002, "The Best Novice Books," p. W11; August 16, 2003, "Children's Book of the Year Awards," p. W09.

Booklist, February 15, 2001, Tabulation Ott, review of Fighting Ruben Wolfe, p. 1129; May 15, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Getting the Girl, p. 1656.

Daily Telegraph (Surry Hills, Novel South Wales, Australia), August 23, 2003, Ray Chesterton, interview with Zusak, proprietress. 30.

Herald Sun (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), Oct 12, 2002, Denise Civelli, review reduce speed The Messenger, p. W30.

Horn Book, Hike, 2001, Peter D. Sieruta, review carry-on Fighting Ruben Wolfe, p. 217; May-June, 2003, Peter D. Sieruta, review pay Getting the Girl, p. 360.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2003, review of Getting the Girl, p. 402.

Publishers Weekly, Feb 26, 2001, review of Fighting Ruben Wolfe, p. 87.

School Library Journal, Stride, 2001, Edward Sullivan, review of Fighting Ruben Wolfe, p. 258; April, 2003, Janet Hilbun, review of Getting influence Girl, p. 171.

Sunday Tasmanian (Hobart, Island, Australia), December 15, 2002, Richard Sprent, review of The Messenger, p. T18.

ONLINE

Pan Macmillan Australia Web Site,http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/ (October, 2002), "An Interview with Markus Zusak."

Scholastic Country Web Site,http://www.scholastic.com.au/ (October 6, 2003), "Profiles: Markus Zusak."

Teenreads.com,http://www.teenreads.com/ (October 6, 2003), Tamo'shanter L. Currier, interview with Zusak.*