Markus Zusak has never looked far for sources of dramatic potential. The internationally bestselling writer has long found seeds of the epic in the regular unfolding of daily life.
In 2022, Zusak was consumed with a project that wasn’t working in the wake of Bridge of Clay, the follow-up to The Book Thief, an acclaimed novel that has sold 16m copies since it was published in 2005. His beloved dogs, Archer and Rueben, had died. His family had reluctantly taken in a wolfhound cross called Frosty. One evening, the writer found himself at the intersection of Ocean Street and Syd Einfeld Drive in Sydney’s Woollahra. Frosty lunged at him. Zusak fought back, risking the judgment of the joggers, cyclists and well-heeled women that people this neighbourhood.
