Similar or Complete Opposites: Markus Zusak vs Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief and All the Light We Cannot See are very well-rounded books by very brilliant authors. Both books are set around the time of World War II and tell the bitterness of the war. In Zusak’s book, The Book Thief, Liesel moves in with a new family during the time of World War II. Liesel steals books from the Mayor’s wife to “cope” with what she has/is going through. Her family takes in a Jewish hideaway named Max, and he helps Liesel develop strength within herself. In Doerr’s book, All the Light We Cannot See, Marie-Laure is a blind girl who learns how to see what goes on in the world without sight. Werner Pfennig is an intelligent German soldier who learns what war has done …show more content…
Zusak had the advantage that his parents grew up through World War II. He started the book year by just scrambling ideas and he wrote about a modern-day book thief. Then two years later, he wanted to seriously talk about his parents and their lives during World War II, so he decided to put the book thief in it. In his book, The Book Thief, color is very symbolic. How he developed the colors in the book was he did a writing exercise with some high school students and he realized he wrote about red, white, and blue. He said, “More importantly, about the three different deaths, from Death’s point of view.” He had wondered if that made sense but as he kept going the ideas began to form more clearly ( Markus Zusak : Home of The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger | About the Author and Goodreads). Doerr, however, developed his story by going on a book tour in France where he got to go through Saint-Malo, the setting of All the Light We Cannot See. He was also inspired by a man on a train he was on. He would read war stories as a child and that helped him get a base to his story. It took him ten years to develop the book (Goodreads). Although the authors had different ways of developing their stories, they both got many awards and honors for their …show more content…
Doerr has a wife and still lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He has won four awards for All the Light We Cannot See. In 2010, he won the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US, and Canada. This award is for those “who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.” He won the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction award in 2014. He also won two awards in 2015, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Audie Award for Fiction. He has won many other awards for his other books and short stories (Anthony Doerr). Zusak has a wife and two kids living in Sydney, Australia still. Doerr got four awards for his book but Zusak only got three for The Book Thief. He received Kathleen Mitchell Award and National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The Kathleen Mitchell Award is bi-annual Australian literature prize for young authors. He also won the Indies Choice Book Award for Children’s literature. He’s written fourteen books and won other awards for his books like Doerr. (Chicago Public Library) Although they did not grow up the same, they still had similar interest while growing in
The Book Thief and All the Light We Cannot See are very well-rounded books by very brilliant authors. Both books are set around the time of World War II and tell the bitterness of the war. In Zusak’s book, The Book Thief, Liesel moves in with a new family during the time of World War II. Liesel steals books from the Mayor’s wife to “cope” with what she has/is going through. Her family takes in a Jewish hideaway named Max, and he helps Liesel develop strength within herself. In Doerr’s book, All the Light We Cannot See, Marie-Laure is a blind girl who learns how to see what goes on in the world without sight. Werner Pfennig is an intelligent German soldier who learns what war has done …show more content…
Zusak had the advantage that his parents grew up through World War II. He started the book year by just scrambling ideas and he wrote about a modern-day book thief. Then two years later, he wanted to seriously talk about his parents and their lives during World War II, so he decided to put the book thief in it. In his book, The Book Thief, color is very symbolic. How he developed the colors in the book was he did a writing exercise with some high school students and he realized he wrote about red, white, and blue. He said, “More importantly, about the three different deaths, from Death’s point of view.” He had wondered if that made sense but as he kept going the ideas began to form more clearly ( Markus Zusak : Home of The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger | About the Author and Goodreads). Doerr, however, developed his story by going on a book tour in France where he got to go through Saint-Malo, the setting of All the Light We Cannot See. He was also inspired by a man on a train he was on. He would read war stories as a child and that helped him get a base to his story. It took him ten years to develop the book (Goodreads). Although the authors had different ways of developing their stories, they both got many awards and honors for their …show more content…
Doerr has a wife and still lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He has won four awards for All the Light We Cannot See. In 2010, he won the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US, and Canada. This award is for those “who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.” He won the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction award in 2014. He also won two awards in 2015, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Audie Award for Fiction. He has won many other awards for his other books and short stories (Anthony Doerr). Zusak has a wife and two kids living in Sydney, Australia still. Doerr got four awards for his book but Zusak only got three for The Book Thief. He received Kathleen Mitchell Award and National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The Kathleen Mitchell Award is bi-annual Australian literature prize for young authors. He also won the Indies Choice Book Award for Children’s literature. He’s written fourteen books and won other awards for his books like Doerr. (Chicago Public Library) Although they did not grow up the same, they still had similar interest while growing in