The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller from the author of the upcoming new novel Bridge of Clay.

"Brilliant and hugely ambitious ... the kind of book that can be life changing" The New York Times

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.

Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

The Book Thief is a story about the power of words to make worlds. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

ACCLAIM FOR THE BOOK THIEF

"The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic." USA Today

"Elegant, philosophical and moving ... Beautiful and important." Kirkus Reviews

"Extraordinary, resonant and relevant, beautiful and angry." 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." The Guardian

"A moving work which will make many eyes brim." Independent on Sunday

AWARDS FOR THE BOOK THIEF

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (South East Asia & South Pacific) 2006
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year 2006
Daniel Elliott Peace Award 2006
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year 2006
National Jewish Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature 2006
Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book 2006
Michael L. Printz Honor Book 2007
Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature 2007
Winner of the ALA Youth Medal Awards' Margaret A. Edwards Award 2014

From the author of the international bestseller The Book Thief and upcoming new novel Bridge of Clay.

"comedic, romantic, thrilling, confronting, playful, deceptive" Australian Book Review

Meet Ed Kennedy - cab driving prodigy, pathetic card player and useless at sex (self-proclaimed). He lives in a suburban shack, shares coffee with his dog, the Doorman, and he's in nervous love with Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence - until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first Ace turns up.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town, helping and hurting (where necessary) until only one question remains. Who's behind Ed's mission?

Protect the diamonds, survive the clubs, dig deep through spades, feel the hearts... The Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists and love.

PRAISE FOR MARKUS ZUSAK

"Zusak has a unique, remarkable talent for being able to make me laugh and cry all within the space of a few pages..." The Guardian

From the author of the no.1 New York Times bestselling novel The Book Thief.

"An amazing talent in Australian literature" Sunday Telegraph

The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy - their mother is dead, their father has fled - they love and fight, and learn to reckon with the adult world.

It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge; for his family, for his past, for his sins. He builds a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive.

A miracle and nothing less.

WINNER INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020

PRAISE FOR BRIDGE OF CLAY

"I am pleased to recommend...Markus Zusak's extraordinary novel Bridge of Clay, which I suspect I'll reread many times. It's a sprawling, challenging, and endlessly rewarding book. But it also has the raw and real and unironized emotion that courses through all of Zusak's books. I'm in awe of him." John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska

"Exquisitely written multigenerational family saga...With heft and historical scope, Zusak creates a sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt's manifestations." Publishers Weekly

"An evocative, compassionate and exquisitely composed coming-of-age story about family, love, tragedy and forgiveness. Zusak's prose is distinct: astute, witty, exquisitely rhythmic, and utterly engrossing." Australian Books+Publishing Magazine

"Zusak is a writer of extraordinary empathy and he excels in his understanding of adolescent boys...in his portrayal of the gently traumatised Clay he has created a memorable character to savour... in Bridge of Clay, as earlier in The Book Thief, Zusak has succeeded in creating a story so vibrant and so real that the reader feels enveloped by it." The Australian

"This vast novel is a feast of language and irony. It is such a compassionate book that it is hard not to fall a bit in love with it yourself. Bridge of Clay shares with Zusak's The Book Thief an underlying sense of the possibility of joy and human dignity even in dehumanising situations." Sydney Morning Herald

"A complex, big-hearted, multi-generational Australian epic, highly evocative and rich in idiom that sprawls across 580 pages, much in the manner of Colleen McCullough, or Tim Winton's Cloudstreet." Good Weekend Magazine

"In 2005, the Australian writer dazzled readers and secured a perch on bestseller lists with The Book Thief ...this book too is a stunner. Devastating, demanding and deeply moving, Bridge of Clay unspools like a kind of magic act in reverse, with feats of narrative legerdemain concealed by misdirection that all make sense only when the elements of the trick are finally laid out. In words that seem to ache with emotion, or perhaps, more aptly, with the suppression of it, Mr. Zusak moves us in and out of time. Grief and sacrifice lie at the heart of things, and we can feel it through Mr.

From the author of the international bestseller The Book Thief and new novel Bridge of Clay.

"You're a bit of a lonely bastard, aren't you?" said Rube.

"Yeah," I answered, "I guess I am."

But Cameron Wolfe is hungry. He's sick of being the filthy, torn, half-smiling, half-scowling underdog.

He's finally met a girl.

He's got words in his spirit.

And now he's out to prove that there's nothing more beautiful than an underdog who's willing to stand up.

PRAISE FOR WHEN DOGS CRY

"The intersection of the characters is a real strength ... a story of family dynamics and coming of age" School Library Journal

A trajetória de Liesel Meminger é contada por uma narradora mórbida, surpreendentemente simpática. Ao perceber que a pequena ladra de livros lhe escapa, a Morte afeiçoa-se à menina e rastreia suas pegadas de 1939 a 1943. Traços de uma sobrevivente: a mãe comunista, perseguida pelo nazismo, envia Liesel e o irmão para o subúrbio pobre de uma cidade alemã, onde um casal se dispõe a adotá-los por dinheiro. O garoto morre no trajeto e é enterrado por um coveiro que deixa cair um livro na neve. É o primeiro de uma série que a menina vai surrupiar ao longo dos anos. O único vínculo com a família é esta obra, que ela ainda não sabe ler.

Assombrada por pesadelos, ela compensa o medo e a solidão das noites com a conivência do pai adotivo, um pintor de parede bonachão que lhe dá lições de leitura. Alfabetizada sob vistas grossas da madrasta, Liesel canaliza urgências para a literatura. Em tempos de livros incendiados, ela os furta, ou os lê na biblioteca do prefeito da cidade.

A vida ao redor é a pseudo-realidade criada em torno do culto a Hitler na Segunda Guerra. Ela assiste à eufórica celebração do aniversário do Führer pela vizinhança. Teme a dona da loja da esquina, colaboradora do Terceiro Reich. Faz amizade com um garoto obrigado a integrar a Juventude Hitlerista. E ajuda o pai a esconder no porão um judeu que escreve livros artesanais para contar a sua parte naquela História. A Morte, perplexa diante da violência humana, dá um tom leve e divertido à narrativa deste duro confronto entre a infância perdida e a crueldade do mundo adulto, um sucesso absoluto - e raro - de crítica e público.

Best-seller da Veja

Eine unvergessliche Geschichte vom dunkelsten und doch brillantesten aller Erzähler: dem Tod. Tragisch und witzige, zugleich wütend und zutiefst lebensbejahend – ein Meisterwerk.

Una novela preciosa, tremendamente humana y emocionante, que describe las peripecias de una niña alemana de nueve años desde que es dada en adopción por su madre hasta el final de la II Guerra Mundial.

UNO DE LOS 30 MEJORES NOVELAS HISTÓRICAS DE TODOS LOS TIEMPOS SEGÚN ELLE

Érase una vez un pueblo donde las noches eran largas y la muerte contaba su propia historia. En el pueblo vivía una niña que quería leer, un hombre que tocaba el acordeón y un joven judío que escribía bellos cuentos para escapar del horror de la guerra. Al cabo de un tiempo, la niña se convirtió en una ladrona que robaba libros y regalaba palabras. Con estas palabras se escribió una historia hermosa y cruel que ahora ya es una novela inolvidable.

La crítica ha dicho...
«La ladrona de libros deslumbra por sus extraordinarios personajes, su capacidad de emocionar sin clichés y, ante todo, por su omnipresente reflexión sobre el valor de las palabras.»
Ricard Ruiz Garzón, El Periódico de Catalunya

«La esperanza de Liesel es inexpugnable... Los lectores jóvenes necesitan este tipo de alternativas a la rigidez ideológica, así como exploraciones sobre la importancia de las historias. Y, pensándolo bien, también los adultos.»
The New York Times

«Elegante, filosófica, conmovedora, bella e importante.»
Kirkus Reviews

«Merece estar junto al Diario de Ana Frank en nuestra biblioteca.»
USA Today

«Una narrativa extraordinaria.»
SLJ

«Zusak no endulza nada, pero logra que un tema aparentemente triste resulte tolerable tal como lo hizo Kurt Vonnegut en Matadero cinco: con un humor sombrío, reconfortante.»
Time Magazine

«Un gran logro. [...] Un libro desafiante en extensión y tema.»
Publishers Weekly

«Uno de los libros más esperados en años.»
The Wall Street Journal

Mais de uma década após o sucesso de A menina que roubava livros,

Markus Zusak traça a saga de uma família em busca de redenção

Se em A menina que roubava livros é a morte quem conta a história, em O construtor de pontes, novo romance de Markus Zusak, presente e passado se fundem na voz de outro narrador igualmente potente: Matthew, o filho mais velho da família Dunbar. Sentado na cozinha de casa diante de uma máquina de escrever antiga, ele precisa nos contar sobre um dos seus quatro irmãos, Clay. Tudo aconteceu com ele. Todos mudaram por causa dele.

Anos antes, os cinco garotos haviam sido abandonados pelo pai sem qualquer explicação. No entanto, em uma tarde ensolarada e abafada o patriarca retorna com um pedido inusitado: precisa de ajuda para construir uma ponte. Escorraçado pelos jovens e por Aquiles, a mula de estimação da família, o homem vai embora novamente, mas deixa seu endereço num pedaço de papel. Acontece que havia um traidor entre eles: Clay.

É Clay, então, quem parte para a cidade do pai, e os dois, juntos, se dedicam ao projeto mais ambicioso e grandioso de suas vidas: uma ponte feita de pedras e também de lembranças — lembranças da mãe, do pai, dos irmãos e dele mesmo, do garoto que foi um dia, antes de tudo mudar. O tempo, assim como o rio sob a ponte, tem uma força avassaladora, capaz de destruir, mas também de construir novos caminhos.

O construtor de pontes narra a jornada de uma família marcada pela culpa e pela morte. Com uma linguagem poética e inventiva, Markus Zusak nos presenteia mais uma vez com uma história inesquecível, uma trama arrebatadora sobre o amor e o perdão em tempos de caos.