Bestselling novelist Markus Zusak has written a taut and compelling novel which, suitably enough since it is about boxing, packs a punch. With not enough money coming into the house, two brothers set about to earn some extra cash. Picked up by a boxing promoter they start to fight for money. Having practised together, one with the left hand glove and one with the right, the two are both good but what will happen when they have to fight each other?
Keep it clean, fellas. Fair fight. Okay. Do it. Don't go down. If you go down, get up. The bell, the fists, the fight. It begins, and the first round is death. The second round is the coffin. The third is the funeral. The Wolfe brothers know how to fight - they've been fighting all their lives. Now there's more at stake than just winning.
Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small, German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
'We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys and the 'Heil Hitlers' and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn’t follow the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses.'
Markus Zusak is the award-winning recipient of a 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.
