Alfred A. Knopf is pleased to publish BRIDGE OF CLAY (On sale October 9, 2018 / $26.00), a novel 13 years in the writing from beloved international bestselling author Markus Zusak. This is the breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. At the center of the family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

Zusak is best known for his extraordinary novel The Book Thief, which has sold 16 million copies worldwide, is published in 42 foreign language territories, and has spent over 500 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Originally published in the US in March 2006, the novel received glowing praise and numerous awards, including a Michael L. Printz Honor from the American Library Association and the Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. The Book Thief has since gone on to become a book selection of community reads programs across the country and was released as a major motion picture in 2013. It was also featured on the list of America’s 100 most-loved books by PBS’s The Great American Read.

“Thirteen years is probably long enough between books, but BRIDGE OF CLAY was never meant to be easy. It’s a boy in search of a miracle, and that’s how I feel about finishing,” says Zusak. “Every book we write means something to us, but sometimes it comes to mean everything—and BRIDGE OF CLAY, for me, is that latter type: the book you have to fight for, but is all the more rewarding. I hope readers will enjoy spending time with the Dunbar boys, and all their raucous habits—but it’s Clay I feel for most, and his attempt to build that bridge of his, and find a way back home.”

This unforgettable story is sure to resonate with all readers, who will finish astonished by this truly moving portrait of an unconventional family over generations—a family that includes one murderer, one broken-nosed bride, one mule, and five brothers. Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak.

BRIDGE OF CLAY is available as an audiobook read by Markus Zusak from Listening Library.

MARKUS ZUSAK is the author of the extraordinary international bestseller The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger, an LA Times Book Award Finalist and Printz Award Honor book. The Book Thief was named one of the best books of 2006 by many publications and received glowing reviews in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, People, and USA Today. Markus lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children. You can follow him online at zusakbooks.com, on Facebook at @MarkusZusak, and on Instagram at @markuszusak.