Abstract:
In this article, the author argues that Markus Zusak and Terry Pratchett make use of
metafictional strategies as well as their respective anthropomorphic figures of death to allow
readers, particularly young ones, to confront difficult topics, providing them with a glimpse
of truth as far as their own mortality is concerned. In Zusak’s The Book Thief (2005) and
Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (2001), death, war and the
nature of evil are considered through a fictional lens, allowing a certain amount of distancing
between the young reader and these painful realities. Without naively underplaying the
actuality of death, Zusak and Pratchett show how stories can ameliorate the traumatic and
anxiety-inducing aspects of such events. Zusak challenges people’s notions of what young
adult literature can portray, while Pratchett focuses on what it means not only to be a human
being, but an ethical sentient being.
