The Book Thief author, Markus Zusak on death, reading and his latest book

The name Markus Zusak rings a bell in the minds of book lovers for his best-known masterpiece, 'The Book Thief'. The tale of the little girl surviving Nazi Germany, taking refuge in her love for books and bringing about change in her own way, is a tale that one isn't likely to forget once one reads it. Published in 2005, it was translated into over 30 languages and adapted as an eponymous film. A good thing, because it would take Zusak 13 more years before his next book. With his avidly-awaited 'Bridge of Clay' finally published in October 2018, the author, speaks to us about the long and arduous process of writing the book, his own love for reading, his idea of death and more.

It took you 13 years after 'Book Thief' to release 'Bridge of Clay'.

How did it feel to finally have the book out there?

It's always pretty nerve-wrecking putting a book out, let alone after 13 years … but honestly, I'm more fatalistic by the time the book goes out into the world. All the real work is done, and if you know you've given everything of yourself and more in its writing and editing, you just hope that readers will connect with what you've produced. I think there's a point where you have to break free of writing for your readers, and you start writing it for the characters in the book – to do right by them – and I think that's when a book truly comes to life.

What were the causes for the delay?

Mostly, it was just a big book with a lot of characters, which means keeping a lot of balls in the air at once. On another level, it was more because I think I was just trying to write better than I actually am. I was trying to write above myself, and I have no regrets about that now at all. I feel like that was what Clay, as a character, deserved.

In an interview with 'The Guardian', you mention that the book left you beaten up and bruised. What made you keep at it instead of diverting your energies to other projects and coming back to this later?

It was always funny when people would say, throughout the years: "Why don't you just write one of your other ideas?" I would laugh and reply, "Well, that's the problem – I don't have any other ideas!" Now I just realise that I definitely did have other things I could have worked on, but none of them felt like this. When I was working on 'Bridge of Clay', I was writing for the world championship of myself. All other projects felt empty. 'Bridge of Clay' felt like everything.

Why choose a non-linear narrative for 'Bridge of Clay'?

It was the most natural way to do it, and I feel like we all live our lives between the present and the past. And I love the idea that our lives start long before we're even born. Our very existence relies upon hundreds of small miracles. Water also plays a big part in 'Bridge of Clay', and so I wanted the story to be tidal, in a way. As Clay goes out with the tide to build the bridge, the tide of his family's history is coming in. In that way, I had the combination of memory and moving forward. And the past always sheds light on the present.

In the 13 years that it took to write it, what changes did the book go through?

There are too many to detail, to tell you the truth. The biggest change was that the book originally had a different narrator – a girl named Maggie, who was Carey Novac's younger sister. About six years in, I finally realised it wasn't working, and adapted the entire book to be written in Matthew's voice (Clay's oldest brother), which was a slow and arduous process, but also the right decision. By the end, when I realised exactly why Matthew is writing Clay's story – almost as the ultimate proof of love – it felt like the last building block falling into place. Now I can't conceive of it being any other way.

How do you visualise Death (since he plays such a prominent role in both 'Book Thief' and 'Bridge of Clay')?

It doesn't preoccupy me as much as you might think. For me, I just see death as the one great thing that that gives life the ultimate value. Knowing we're going to die gives meaning to so much of what we do. Of course, Death narrated 'The Book Thief', and appears quite casually in 'Bridge of Clay', but these are arenas I channel as soon as I start writing. I don't think about death everyday. I think I just live like most people, with death at those outer reaches. For the most part, I see its shadow only at the furthest margin.

Whether it is 'The Messenger', 'The Book Thief' or 'Bridge of Clay', your narrator is a character in the story rather than a third person outside of the plot. How important is it to you to establish this voice and the character that goes with it?

As most writers will tell you, voice is everything. I employ a narrator within the story mostly because it just feels right. When I write I want to believe. I want to believe everything, no matter how outlandish, and that all comes down to the voice. I think I like my narrator to feel close to the source of the story, without quite fully understanding it. I want them to be curious, sometimes even puzzled. I want them to not know everything. Maybe that's why I've never employed a truly third person narrator.

In 'The Book Thief', Leisel's love for books consoles her through the horrors of Nazi Germany, even as she steals them when she can. How much do her sentiments reflect your own love for books?

Books have given me everything. I wanted to be writer from the time I was sixteen and realised what a precious piece of magic it is to be reading fiction and know it's not true, but to believe it when you're in it. That's when I thought, That's what I want to do with my life. Books have shown me the way – and I'm most alive when I'm reading and writing well.

What made the genre of young adult fiction resonate with you and why did you deviate from it with this latest book?

I don't feel like I've deviated from anything. I started with young adult fiction because I was sixteen when I started writing, and I think the books have just grown with me. The Book Thief is only considered a young adult book in a few territories, and I don't think about those categories anyway. I have a bookshelf at home with all my favourite books on it, and that's what I'm trying to do when I write anything. If you're not trying to write someone's favourite book, what's the point? The odds of achieving it are almost impossible, so it's no disgrace to not quite get there, but you always have to try. When you have that goal in mind, the categorisation of books ceases to matter.

Having gone through a tremendous writer's block yourself, what advice would you give other authors who are going through the same?

It's funny, I never think of it as a block. I've written more in the last thirteen years than I ever have – it's more a writer's lack of faith – and the advice I give anyone struggling to write is just not to be too hard on yourself. You're going to have bad days, and the test is showing up again, and again, until it all comes together … even if it takes a decade.

If you had to name a single book that has stayed with you over the years, which would it be and why?

I think there's kind of like a football team of books I can reach for when I want to remember why I became a writer in the first place. Right now the one I'm thinking of is Tobias Wolff's Old School, for the assurance of the voice, and the feeling that he loves and believes the characters he's writing.

Now that 'Bridge of Clay' is out, are you taking a break from writing or is the next book already in the works?

I do finally have some ideas that are reaching the point of first words on a page, and I'll see which ones call the strongest. One is fiction, one non-fiction. But I know it won't take thirteen years this time. And certainly not any longer, either!