Zusak is a native of Australia and was born in Sydney in 1975, the youngest of four children to Austrian and German parents. He was encouraged to read and write at an early age and specialized in English and education for his college years. Zusak has authored a young adult trilogy and two other young adult novels in addition to Bridge of Clay; however, his novel The Book Thief is occasionally marketed toward adults, and the United States was the only country which published Bridge of Clay as a young adult novel (“Markus Zusak Biography.” Chicago Public Library). Zusak lives in Sydney with his wife and children. Many of his novels feature themes connected to family, loss, forgiveness, and growth.

More than a decade separated the publication of Bridge of Clay and Zusak’s last work, The Book Thief. He had the idea for the book as early as 1998, making it a novel 20 years in the making. He has been very open with his struggle to maintain consistency and voice, as well as his different experiments with swapping characters, narrators, and perspectives. Zusak also noted that following the success of The Book Thief, there was a substantial amount of anxiety that stemmed from publishing another book and worrying about its reception.