Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

Paperback, 224 pages

Published May 31st 2007 by Oxford University Press
Genre: Historical Fiction

Kristine's Thoughts:

This book has been sitting on my daughter's bookshelf for many years. Both of my children have read it and I always intended to but never quite found the time for it. It wasn't until recently when I stumbled across a list of the top books about WWII of the decade in which this book was listed that I finally picked it up and read it. I have a fascination for historical fiction and WWII.

The Boy In the Striped Pajamas was narrated from the perspective of nine year old Bruno. It told the story of his father's promotion and the move from their five story house in Berlin to a house in the middle of nowhere in "Out-with." As the reader you learn how he felt about the soldiers that were constantly coming and going out of his house and the strange camp behind the giant fence that he could seen from his bedroom window. Next, the unusual friendship he developed with the boy on the other side of the fence.

This book is very short so I won't divulge any more of the plot but I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading a story about such a horrible time and awful place from the naivety and innocence of a young child. It really made me stop and think. It goes to show that behaviour is learned and not something you are born with. I don't know how to describe the way this story made me feel but I can say that it was powerful in its delivery and its message.

One sitting is all that is needed to get through this gem of a book. Once you start reading you won't want to stop and I guarantee you will still be thinking about it long after the last page has turned.

About the Author

John Boyne (born 30 April 1971 in Dublin) is an Irish novelist.

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he won the Curtis Brown prize. In 2015, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by UEA.

John Boyne is the author of ten novels for adults and five for young readers, as well as a collection of short stories.

His novels are published in over 50 languages.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which to date has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, is a #1 New York Times Bestseller and a film adaptation was released in September 2008. Boyne resides in Dublin. He is represented by the literary agent Simon Trewin at WME in London, United Kingdom.

His most recent publication is the novel 'The Heart's Invisible Furies', published in the UK in February 2017. It will be published in the USA in August.

Connect with John

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