The message of these cards and who is sending them is revealed at the end of the novel in a postmodern twist: The author Zusak himself has been sending Ed on these quests, and Ed is at the heart of the message itself. I
“I know very well, madam,” said he, “that when persons sit down to a card table, they must take their chance of these things—and happily I am not in such circumstances as to make five shillings any object. There are undoubtedly many who could not say the same, but thanks to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I am removed far beyond the necessity of regarding little matters.”