I+Am+the+Messenger

The story begins with an introduction to the character of Ed Kennedy, a down-and-out underage taxi driver. Ed is standing in a bank queue when a robbery takes place. He accidentally foils the robbers' escape, and is proclaimed a hero. Shortly after, he receives an ace in the mail. The ace is from an unknown source. On the ace is written a list of addresses and times. These represent a series of tasks that Ed must complete.

His tasks are as follows:

He must save a woman who is raped by her husband every night. He must comfort a lonely old lady. He must show a teenage girl how to take control of her life and become more confident. Throughout the book, Ed receives different playing cards in the mail. Each card is a different ace, and each ace contains a series of tasks, often in the form of cryptic clues. Through these cards Ed not only helps people, he also helps himself.

The Messenger raises many questions relating to the path that the lives of people like Ed and his friends will take, but still remains very humorous and distinctively Australian. Zusak's characters in this novel are incredibly easy to relate to and he very accurately describes life in suburban Australia. Ed's relationship with his mother is also indicative of many family situations in middle class families in Australia and modern Western society. The reader can also relate strongly to Ed's feeling of lack of direction or hope of making something of his life. The novel does not contain the shallow, stereotypical supporting characters commonly found in other novels of similar themes, and every individual in the novel is developed with depth and intrigue. Along with the descriptions with which Zusak depicts The Messenger, he manages to also take a step back and give an intelligent, subjective view of reality.

Source(s):
[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_The_Me…]