All The Broken Places: The Sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

An amazing read. The switch between the past and the present is what keeps you hooked from the start and at the end everything makes soo much sense. The emotions have been captured perfectly.

Absolutely amazing writing—I’ve never seen a female character portrayed so beautifully. I know it was written by a man, but after reading this, I found it hard to believe. The depth, grace, and authenticity in the portrayal make it feel as if only someone who truly understands the essence of a woman could have written it.

Brilliantly written book about a subject that is not explored much, the war from the perspective of those who were children then. The writing style is very engrossing and it’s a difficult book to put down.

you must purchase you won't want to put it down

Una HISTORIA de principio a fin. Se la recomendaría a cualquiera

The author said of "All the Broken Places" that he always had a fascination with and even a fear of the effects of the Holocaust—the evil result and enduring stain of Hitler’s autocratic rule, and its influence on the struggle for good. Boyne says that this book, “a sequel to his earlier work, "Striped Pajamas," is about guilt, complicity and grief and examines how culpable a young person might be, given the historical event unfolding around her and whether such a person can ever cleanse themselves of crimes committed by people she loved.” This book begins with a quote from Voltaire, an 18th century historian and philosopher, who wrote Candide, a satire on optimism in an evil world: “If everyman is guilty of the good he did not do, then I have spent an entire lifetime convincing myself that I am innocent of all the bad.” Gretel is the protagonist who struggles with guilt due to her own acts of commission and omission, acts of helpless association with others, guilt’s assuagement based on excuses, lies, self-preservation and, finally, redemption. She also struggles with the complexity and valence of evil not reserved to the horrors of a concentration camp. The craft of this historical novel covers 77 years of Gretel’s 92 years of life: 1945-2022, from the time she was a girl of 15 living with her loving family in the commandant’s quarters at Auschwitz in Poland until her imprisonment at age 92 in London. The 30 or so chapters are rapid-fire vignettes of past, present, past, present…, each of which demands the reader’s attention and memory, insisting along a common thread that past and present are one and the same because the familiar struggles with life keep re-emerging in different contexts—wherever you go, there you are. A strictly linear story-line would be less surprising, perhaps less interesting. The point of the book is the ubiquity of the mystery of evil cohabiting with good, the determination and drift of free will, the pressure points of contexts, the imposition of history, the relationships chosen among credible characters. Good historical novels, such as this one, showcase what real life in charged moments like post-Nazi Europe feels like on the street, in a home, with or without a family, and, above all, in the minds and decisions of credible, relatable characters. There is power in this book and a few surprises.

I couldn’t put All the Broken Places down! The chapters are short, which made it easy to sneak in a few pages between laundry and school pickups. The story pulls you in right away, and Gretel is such an interesting character. You can really feel the guilt and fear she carries, and the tension just keeps building until it all explodes at the end. If you love a book that keeps you turning pages late at night, this is it!

All the Broken Places is a sequel to John Boyne's "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas". The Boy.... was, I thought, ridiculous, because anyone who understands Auschwitz knows beyond doubt that what happened in that first book would have been absolutely impossible. No-one could sit somewhere unmolested, let alone lift the bottom wires of a fence to allow in a visiting friend. That first book was seen by me as an exercise in ignorance and money-making. "All the Broken Places" is, however, completely different. It is totally absorbing and impossible to put down. Simply, it is the story of "the boy's" sister and mother post-war. It eventually takes us into his sister's life as she ages, living in England, her great fear being that her true identity and history will be uncovered and revealed. The story is tense, exciting, psychologically astute, and impossible to forget. I loved this book and recommend it to all those who enjoy literary fiction. Five stars.