Book Review – The Messenger by Markus Zusak

Australian Young Adult Novel Covers Themes of Hope and Aspiration.

May 6, 2009

Part thriller, part fable, The Messenger tells the story of a young man finding the meaning in life.

Published in the U.S as I Am the Messenger, The Messenger (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2002) is a worthy predecessor to Markus Zusak’s highly acclaimed novel, The Book Thief (Picador, 2003).

The Messenger opens with unlikely hero Ed Kennedy thwarting an incredibly incompetent bank robber. At nineteen Ed has already fallen into an aimless life. He is a part-time cab driver, and spends most of his free time either hanging about in his cheap rental shack in with his old dog as his only company, or playing cards with his equally idle friends.

As a result of his brush with fame, Ed is sent an ace of diamonds playing card inscribed with three addresses. Upon further investigation, an intrigued Ed discovers that these addresses house people who somehow need his help. As Ed becomes more engaged in the tasks he is given, he loses his complacency and becomes more engaged in life.

As the aces keep coming, the messages come closer and closer to home. Varying from the seemingly mundane to the often dangerous, Ed not only discovers things about the lives of total strangers, but also about his friends, family and himself. Along the way he must deal with violence, poverty and perhaps the most frightening – love. But the largest question is who is sending Ed the messages and why?

Fans of The Book Thief will be pleased with Zusak’s adept use of language in The Messenger. He can take the reader from humour to heartbreak within just a few lines of prose. With Ed as the narrator, there are many moments of introspection, but the plot is kept moving with plenty of action as well.

The violence that Ed encounters (as witness, recipient and also instigator) means that the novel has a hard edge. This is no saccharine-sweet tale of redemption - Ed’s lessons are learned the hard way. As such, the story retains a certain amount of realism, despite the almost surreal circumstances in which Ed finds himself.

The attitude that life is to be lived, and that caring enough to care can bring meaning to even the smallest of acts lies at the heart of The Messenger. And yet such an old-fashioned concept is treated in a modern way, that has real appeal to its target readership.

The fourth book by Markus Zusak, The Messenger has received acclaim both internationally and within the author’s home country of Australia, including:

Entertaining and uplifting, The Messenger is a thought-provoking young adult novel for readers in their late teens.

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