“I think the Bridge of Clay is actually better written than The Book Thief”: An Evening with Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak, born in Australia, famous for the Book Thief, after 13 years has completed his most recent book, the Bridge of Clay. 

The Bridge of Clay was released on October the 9th, 2018.  

Markus Zusak came to the Waterstones on Deansgate on the 29th October for an evening event.

The event was unexpectedly packed out, on the third floor,with so many people crammed into one room on the second floor of Waterstones. There were so many people in the room but fortunately there was three spaces left as we came as a small group to the event, as the MMU Book Club.

It started with Markus Zusak being asked a number of different questions, mostly on his book. It was quite intriguing to watch and listen too. Some of his answers drew laughs from the crowd around.

Markus at one point, when answering a question,  said when comparing the Book Thief and the Bridge of Clay, “I actually think the Bridge of Clay is better written than the Book Thief. Everything in the Bridge of Clay is in there for a particular reason. Usually I go back and look at previous books I’ve written and see the mistakes I’ve made and use them to improve the next book. Since the Book Thief has never really gone away, its been hard to do that. If I was to do that, there would be things I’d be embarassed about in the Book Thief, areas where I went too far. Though it’s better to go to far and not far enough.”

They then opened the floor, and allow the public to ask questions. It was humorous to note, no one really mentioned the film during the initial questions, though in truth other than one or two questions, most of them didn’t refer to the Book Thief.

However one of them was quite political, relevant, asking Markus how important in the current climate that there’s so much information about, whether or not people really bother with reading books now. You can see his answer below. 

Markus Zusak also shared some tips on the whole writing process of the book, the Bridge of Clay. It took him around 13 years which is far longer than  he expected.