I Am the Messenger Turns 15 This Year: Why It’s Still a Must-Read
For seventeen years, I forced myself not to have a favorite book. I loved reading so much, I didn’t want to decide on one in case I read something even better right after. The Phantom Tollbooth came close because it gave me my love of word play, but even still, when asked, I never gave a straight answer. Then I read I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak.
Many know Zusak as the man who wrote The Book Thief, a very popular selection for summer reading lists that got the movie treatment a few years ago. And I get it. The Book Thief is a great book. It deserves the accolades and attention it has received—but in my opinion, I Am the Messenger, which turned 15 this year, is the YA read you should be picking up.
I Am the Messenger
Paperback $12.99
I Am the Messenger
By Markus Zusak
In Stock Online
Paperback $12.99
The story of Ed Kennedy, a 19-year-old cab driver, is simple but beautiful. Up until he stops a bank robbery that, admittedly, wasn’t going that well to begin with, he was nothing special. He went to work, he hung out with his friends, and he took care of his smelly old dog the Doorman—when he wasn’t being yelled at by his ma. All Ed wanted, other than for his best friend Audrey to love him back, was to be more. And he gets his wish in the form of four playing cards.
We follow Ed as he decodes messages left on a series of aces, discovering someone is expecting him to help the twelve people the cards lead him to. Through Ed, we see the secret shadows of a town he has lived in his whole life but never really stopped to consider. There’s camaraderie and happiness, which he’s known, but there’s darkness as well. We see families torn apart by abuse and shame, people down on their luck, and a few who just need a push in order to achieve something great. Spoiler alert: Ed himself might just fall into that last group. (We all might.)
That’s the greatest gift Zusak gives us. Oftentimes, being a teenager means feeling like you don’t have a lot of control, and worrying there’s nothing you can do to change the things that hurt you and others. Ed shows us that, even when you have little more in life than a dog and a car you don’t actually own, there are an unlimited number of ways for you to make a difference. And more than that—when you take that leap and get involved, you end up learning a lot about yourself as well. That’s a lesson I’m still learning, but it was one I really needed to hear when I was a teen.
Beyond that, Zusak teaches us to see the beauty that’s all around us. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book whose language stuck with me just as much as the story did. It’s one of the first things I mention when shoving this book into people’s faces and screaming at them to read it. To me, it’s truly gorgeous—practically poetry—and I think it’s good for teens to have that kind of exposure to great, contemporary writing. It influenced my voice as a writer, and I’ve no doubt it will influence many others.
There’s something special about that first favorite book. I now have a handful of favorites, but perhaps the fact that I came to I Am the Messenger so late in my reading life is why it remains so important to me now, a decade later. Then again, the first time I finished the book, I cried. And I cry again every time I reread it. As much as I love and obsess over Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park (ask anyone), Zusak’s novel is the absolute highest standard I hold books to. It is perfection, and I will never downplay that. So please, please, please read it. You won’t be disappointed.
The story of Ed Kennedy, a 19-year-old cab driver, is simple but beautiful. Up until he stops a bank robbery that, admittedly, wasn’t going that well to begin with, he was nothing special. He went to work, he hung out with his friends, and he took care of his smelly old dog the Doorman—when he wasn’t being yelled at by his ma. All Ed wanted, other than for his best friend Audrey to love him back, was to be more. And he gets his wish in the form of four playing cards.
We follow Ed as he decodes messages left on a series of aces, discovering someone is expecting him to help the twelve people the cards lead him to. Through Ed, we see the secret shadows of a town he has lived in his whole life but never really stopped to consider. There’s camaraderie and happiness, which he’s known, but there’s darkness as well. We see families torn apart by abuse and shame, people down on their luck, and a few who just need a push in order to achieve something great. Spoiler alert: Ed himself might just fall into that last group. (We all might.)
That’s the greatest gift Zusak gives us. Oftentimes, being a teenager means feeling like you don’t have a lot of control, and worrying there’s nothing you can do to change the things that hurt you and others. Ed shows us that, even when you have little more in life than a dog and a car you don’t actually own, there are an unlimited number of ways for you to make a difference. And more than that—when you take that leap and get involved, you end up learning a lot about yourself as well. That’s a lesson I’m still learning, but it was one I really needed to hear when I was a teen.
Beyond that, Zusak teaches us to see the beauty that’s all around us. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book whose language stuck with me just as much as the story did. It’s one of the first things I mention when shoving this book into people’s faces and screaming at them to read it. To me, it’s truly gorgeous—practically poetry—and I think it’s good for teens to have that kind of exposure to great, contemporary writing. It influenced my voice as a writer, and I’ve no doubt it will influence many others.
There’s something special about that first favorite book. I now have a handful of favorites, but perhaps the fact that I came to I Am the Messenger so late in my reading life is why it remains so important to me now, a decade later. Then again, the first time I finished the book, I cried. And I cry again every time I reread it. As much as I love and obsess over Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park (ask anyone), Zusak’s novel is the absolute highest standard I hold books to. It is perfection, and I will never downplay that. So please, please, please read it. You won’t be disappointed.