Activity Número Two — A short biography on Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak was born in 1975, grew up in suburban Sydney, and has written five books so far, the most highly acclaimed by a sizeable margin being The Book Thief. His father was a house painter, much like Hans Hubermann, Liesel's adopted father in the novel. Markus had always wanted to be a house painter as well,and had just always assumed that life would carry him in that direction. However, he soon discovered that painting was definitely not his forte, as he had a knack for knocking over tins and getting bored of a job halfway through. So, after reading some exceptional books and doing a lot of thinking, he chose to become a writer. To quote Markus, speaking of his inspiration (who has since become incredibly successful due to the beauty of his words), "I get my ideas from fourteen years of thinking about it." I think this is true for most authors: your ideas are just recreations of things you have seen or been told. Markus' other books include The Messenger, When Dogs Cry, The Underdog and Fighting Ruben Wolfe. Markus has won plenty of awards for his books, including a Printz Honour from the USA, the Book of the Year Award, and to top it all off, The Book Thief spent 375 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.