Markus Zusak is this year’s Exclusive Books Boeke Prize winner for his novel, The Book Thief (Random House). It was chosen by a panel of 38 judges drawn from book critics in the South African media who were asked to decide which of the eight shortlisted titles they considered ‘impossible to put down, a compelling story that is highly accessible to all book lovers”.
This is the ninth time in the 12year history of the Boeke Prize that a debut novel has won. Vikas Swarup was last year’s winner with his first book, Q&A.
Khaled Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Jonathan Ball), was the runner-up. Fanatics members voted it their best Boeke book of 2007.
The other titles on the shortlist were: No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy (Pan Macmillan), Exile by Richard North Patterson (Pan Macmillan), The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud (Pan Macmillan), The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas (Penguin), Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlman (Book Promotions) and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday (Jonathan Ball).
Zusak, a prize-winning children’s author, lives in Australia. The Book Thief is his first adult novel. He said: ‘When I was 16, I was suddenly reading books that had me turning pages without noticing. I was inside the world of those books. I was living them, believing them completely, and that was when I said: ‘This is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a writer and nothing is going to stop me.’ Those books performed the magic act of compelling me to believe and to keep reading, because that story and those characters were the most important thing to me at that point in time.
‘Winning an award that celebrates books in that spirit is something I’m still finding hard to believe. It’s even harder to fathom given the competition for the award. The authors on that list are people I would find myself stuttering in front of while asking for their signature in one of their books, so I am honoured more than you can imagine.”
The Book Thief
Earlier this year Jane Rosenthal reviewed The Book Thief:
In this novel we have another revisiting of the Holocaust. It is interesting that World War II still looms so large in the consciousness of today’s young writers, but some might question whether The Book Thief offers a useful way of looking at this event in history. Despite being the New York Times No 1 Bestseller, it is rather disappointing.
It purports to be narrated by Death. It’s not Death being personified that is problematic, but that he comes across as a benign old uncle given to complaining about his workload. He is also capable of affection and compassion for those he carries away and able to take a special interest in people such as Liesl, the orphan girl whose parents have been taken to a concentration camp.
Liesl finds herself in the care of a working-class German couple, kind people who are trying to survive in the Nazi era. The street they live on is cheerfully and affectionately evoked with many interesting minor characters. The best part of this novel is the way it shows that not all Germans went along with Nazi ideology and excesses. Liesl also has a good friend, Rudi, with whom she steals apples and books. Then there is Max, a Jew, who is hiding in the basement.
In many ways a charming story, it is also a sort of therapy in that, though Death is busy, grief and anger do not dominate. The characters are able to transmute those states of mind into life and creativity. But thanks mainly to the sentimental effusions of Death it feels overworked.
When captured Jews are ‘marched” through the village, Liesl’s father and Rudi give them bread. Not only does this seem improbable because of the guards, it is also written as high adventure, a feelgood gesture with the emphasis on the bread-givers. There is no real connection with or lasting realisation of the terrible trauma and suffering they are witnessing.
The author seems to want to make things better retrospectively. A case may be made for this, 60 plus years on, but for now it is too saccharine.
WIN a copy of Babylon’s Ark
Up for grabs in the Mail & Guardian / PanMacmillan Babylon Giveaway are five copies of Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo. Written by South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence, the book chronicles the zoo’s transformation from bombed-out rubble to peaceful park. Among others, it recounts efforts to save a pride of Saddam Hussein’s lions, close a black market zoo and rescue Saddam’s Arabian horses.
Anthony, an internationally acclaimed environmentalist and explorer, is the founder of the Earth Organisation. For his work in Baghdad, he became the first South African to win the United Nations Earth Day Award.
To enter, email your answer to the question below to [email protected]. The winner will be published on the books pages of M&G’s Friday section on October 19.
Question: Of what organisation is Lawrence Anthony the founder?