Innocence ends as reality of war sets in
The final pages of John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas deliver an emotional punch that hits the reader right between the eyes. Few books written for either young or adult readers conclude with an ending like this. You have been warned.
Be prepared for a harrowing shock that will take your breath away and have you gripping onto the book with white-knuckled hands.
In 1942 Germany, nine-year-old Bruno lives a privileged life in a big house with servants and everything else that money can buy. Bruno's family is rich and they have everything they need.
Bruno has three wonderful friends at school and every day is filled with happiness and excitement. He is vaguely aware that his country is at war, but he has no notion of what that means. He knows nothing of the horrors that some people in Europe are suffering at the hands of the German army.
One day, Bruno returns home to find all his belongings being packed up. Bruno's father, an important military officer, has been given a new command many miles away and the family can no longer stay in the house that Bruno loves.
His father announces to Bruno and Gretel, his sister, that they are all moving to a new home and that they have to expect changes in their lives. Bruno is confused that all this has come suddenly out of nowhere.
Bruno and Gretel are unceremoniously bundled into a car and driven to their new home without further explanation. Their mother doesn't want to talk about the move and their father is his usual secretive self.
Bruno is left to piece together what he can about his sudden change in circumstances.
Their new home is a big, ugly house in a desolate area, miles from the place Bruno will always call home.
Bruno's father shuts himself away in his office and his mother becomes remote and silent. Bruno has never fully understood what his father does for a living, and he cannot work out why the family has moved to this awful place.
Time passes slowly and Bruno knows he will never settle down. He misses his friends and he has no one to talk to. When Bruno looks out of his bedroom window he sees a high wire fence built around a vast field with huts and large square buildings dotted around.
Behind the fence there are people, hundreds of them, wearing striped clothing and caps, just standing around doing nothing. They are all very thin, and none of them seems to be talking.
Who are these people behind the fence? Bruno decides to try and find out.
The tension mounts as Bruno secretly befriends a boy in striped pyjamas who lives on the other side of the fence. This new friendship will quickly take Bruno from innocence to the terrible reality of what is going on around him.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is an extraordinary book that will move anyone who reads it. It is a unique masterpiece that packs a unique punch and refuses to be forgotten when it is finished.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
By John Boyne
Published by Random House
ISBN 978 0 099 48782 1
