The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne



This story is told from the viewpoint of an innocent child, Bruno, during WWII Germany. Apart from his innocence, Bruno has trouble pronouncing some words, but readers with even a rudimentary knowledge of 20th-century history will figure out, before Bruno does, where he lives and the significance of what he sees.

Bruno is nine when his family moves from their luxurious Berlin home to the country, where “The Fury” has appointed Bruno's father commandant of a house called “Out-With”. Lost and lonely, Bruno can see a camp in the distance, and sees potential playmates, oddly clad in striped pajamas. He has no idea what is going on, even when he eventually meets and makes friends with Shmuel, who lives on the other side of the camp fence. The boys meet every day. They even discover that they have the same birthday. It's all part of a poignant tale: Shmuel is Bruno's parallel self, and the innocent's experience brings home the unimaginable horror. The story raises the question: How could the world outside the fence not have known, or have known and failed to act on, what was happening inside it?

Bruno does finally act, and it is sure to take readers' breath away.

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