Bridge of Clay: Markus Zusak

Overview

Australia's best selling novelist, known for international hit The Book Thief, took 13 years to get over a serious case of writer's block that followed its release. Bridge of Clay is his first foray back into the literary world since his astronomical success.

Bridge of Clay is an Australian family saga which focuses on the lives of five brothers who were abandoned after their mother died and their father disappeared for a good while. Their father comes back to ask them to go with him into the outback to build a literal (and metaphorical) bridge. Only one boy agrees, Clay.

Zusak's The Book Thief was met with the kind of success most writers can only aspire to — it spent ten years on The New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into 40 languages, has sold 16 million copies and has had a major motion picture starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson made out of it. Putting that immense success aside in order to get vulnerable enough again to write a new novel was a difficult process which took him over a decade to do. In his conversation with Catriona Ferguson, he talks about the lessons he learnt about writing, discipline and inspiration during this time.

Image: Elena Seibert.