Review: I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Title: I Am the Messenger

Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Random House
Published: May 9, 2006
Paperback, 360 pgs

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Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?

If you read my reviews, then you'll know I am an amazingly loyal reader when it comes to the authors I love. If I fall in love with any one book, you can be sure that I will pick up anything else written by the author (at least until they disappoint me -- which thankfully doesn't happen that often!). Case in point: Markus Zusak. To this day, I have yet to be moved by a book more than his The Book Thief (see my review here). So of course, when I saw I Am the Messenger on a Barnes and Noble table, I purchased it without a single idea as to what it was about.

What Zusak does as a writer is nothing short of incredible. His characters draw you in and captivate you -- emerse you in their world. And you find yourself unable to tear your eyes away from a single page. In this novel, we meet Ed. Ed is your basic, typical, young guy who has no idea where he's heading in life and we're not even sure if he cares. But one fateful day, after Ed comes away safely from a bank robbery, he gets a message. A message that he - and only he - must deliver. This one message starts him on a path of self-reflection and discovery that the reader never sees coming. Each message that Ed is forced to deliver is more interesting than the last, and I thoroughly enjoyed figuring out Ed's destiny while he did.

Ed's tone of voice is smart and hilarious. Hit wit is unmatched and it gives the entire novel a flow that had me reading this book as easily as drinking water. I was sad when it ended, and also blown away by its ending -- one that affected me for days after I put it down.

Read I Am The Messenger -- learn from Ed and become a Markus Zusak fan.

5 out of 5 stars