Full disclosure: the Australian writer Markus Zusak and I have been friends for almost 20 years, both our lives changed by the publication of our Holocaust-themed novels The Book Thief and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas only weeks apart. So this is not so much a book review as a recommendation. But it’s a genuine recommendation, I swear, not just mates reviewing mates.
Having taken Markus 13 years to complete Bridge of Clay, I’ve urged him on my last few visits Down Under to pick up the pace a little, unaware that writing was only a sideline. His real job was as personal valet to Reuben, Archer and Frosty, three lunatic dogs that he; his wife, Mika; and their two children called family for many years.
I write this piece outside an Adelaide bar where, next to me, sits a young couple with a cavoodle so gorgeous that almost everyone who passes stops, demanding selfies. Strangers wouldn’t stop for the Zusak dogs; they’d cross the street. Maybe move states.
Noah, the Zusaks’ son, is almost mistaken for food when he’s a newborn
Reuben looks like Cujo. Archer, the Hound of the Baskervilles. Frosty is Britney Spears when she shaved her head and started screaming at photographers. They’re all barking mad – sorry – but find acceptance in the Zusak home.
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Reuben is so physically intimidating that when friends come to stay, their small children compose a song titled “Reuben, don’t kill us”. The plumber gets it in the neck. The piano teacher in the arm. Noah, the Zusaks’ son, is almost mistaken for food when he’s a newborn. Markus himself is knocked unconscious and ends up in surgery. One dog kills a possum. They both murder a cat. Mika is nearly arrested on suspicion of dragging a dead body into their house under cover of night and even this, incredibly, is canine-related.
Although it’s frequently hilarious, it’s also heartbreaking for, with advancing age, final visits to the vet soon become inevitable. Still, the Zusaks’ devotion comes across in the book’s best line: “Those dogs might have been complete bastards, but they were also beautiful darlings.”
So yeah, he’s my buddy. But a book like this is one of the reasons I’m proud to call him that.
John Boyne’s next novel, Air, is to be published in May
