Currently, I'm reading I Am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak- author of the more popular The Book Thief. Although this book is much lesser known, I think it's amazing- interesting and different, but beautiful and poetic at the same time. Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver in Australia living on the poor side of town. After accidentally thwarting a bank robbery, he begins to get aces in the mail giving him clues about people. He then must help these people, and along the way, he helps himself and the world.
At the beginning of the book, Ed thinks of himself as just another loser in a town where succeeding takes something special. At one point, after a friends seems him, she says, "Oh... it's just Ed" That really does describe him at the beginning; Ed is Just Ed, not his law school brother Tommy or anybody who can accomplish anything. He drives a taxi in circles around town during the day, spends nights with his dog, Doorman, eating frozen pies, playing the odd card game, and doing chores for his mother. Nothing is at all special about Ed, at least until he starts to see himself from other people's points of view. They don't need to know he's a failure, they only need to know that he cared enough to read to an old woman and share Christmas dinner with her.
As cards go by and Ed's been called a saint multiple times, he starts to believe it. Every time he fixes something in someone else, he feels a deeper sense of purpose. Ed realizes that everyone's in the world for a reason, and he's found his: Delivering messages to people who need them. But in the end, Ed realizes he's greater than just being a carrier- he is the message. Ed Kennedy has the gift of knowing exactly what people need, and so many people are helped by that that Ed is now better than anything he ever dreamed of becoming. But can everyone help the world just a little more? Is Ed really a saint, or just another stupid human?
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