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

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One of John Boyne’s most popular and intensely moving stories was The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and he has taken the step after many years to write the sequel, All the Broken Places. It must have weighed on his mind if he could maintain the legacy of such an admired and deeply profound story. Holocaust stories, especially fiction, are responsible for paying respect to the emotionality of characters and delicately navigating a tale that never reduces the impact of the horrendous crimes committed. Max’s passion for “Striped Pajamas” inspired at least one Holocaust group to change its mind about its educational merits. The Holocaust Educational Trust, a London-based group that advocates British educators on how to teach the Holocaust, had as recently as 2020 declared that “ we advise against using” the book in the classroom.

Not everyone agrees. A 2016 study published by the Centre for Holocaust Education, a British organization housed at University College London, found that 35% of British teachers used his book in their Holocaust lesson plans, and that 85% of students who had consumed any kind of media related to the Holocaust had either read the book or seen its movie adaptation. It’s very much a story about grief and guilt. About trauma, and attempting to escape the past. About running, but never being able to hide. But it's also a compassionate book, and Gretel is a deeply flawed but likeable character and we can see how she has been shaped by events. For all the mistakes in her life, for all her complicity in evil, and for all her regrets, I believe that Gretel’s story is also worth telling,” Boyne writes in an author’s note. “It is up to the reader to decide whether it is worth reading.” For this reader, alas, the answer is no. Whether our sympathies lie with Gretel’s first-person account is moot because the characters are too thinly drawn to evoke emotion either way. Other shortcomings include clunky plot devices, implausible dialogue, an unnecessary twist and a preposterous ending. The problem with All the Broken Places is less whether Gretel’s story is worth telling than how it’s told. Gretel Fernsby will prove to be one of the most complicated characters in recent times. We'll meet her at the age of ninety-one living in the upscale section of Mayfair in London. She's been a widow for some time after the passing of her husband Edgar. But her son, Caden, wishes for his mother to sell her flat. After all, he's on his fourth marriage and could use the cash. Gretel refuses to even consider selling. When is a monster's child culpable? Guilt and complicity are multifaceted. John Boyne is a maestro of historical fiction. You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel." - John Irving, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Garp

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This novel, this exceptional, layered and compelling story, is built on modern history and all of us people who live it. The protagonist, the elderly, forthright and mysterious Mrs. Fernsby, is more than memorable and every one of Boyne's characters, and every scene, dark or light, is limned in truth and insight. This book moves like a freight train, with force and consequence for the reader." - Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love Unlike “Striped Pajamas,” “All the Broken Places” is intended for adults. It’s filled with sex, violence, suicide attempts and bad language — and also some of the details of the Holocaust that were omitted from the first book. It mentions the Sobibor death camp by name, for example, and also takes the time to correct Bruno’s childish assumptions about the death camps being a “farm.” This is a very different story, one that definitely feels pitched toward an older audience – no real surprise given Gretel’s advanced years, but the tone is definitely more grown up, more earthy. It’s a convoluted but easy to follow tale full of echoes from the past and yet with plenty of intrigue wrapped up in the present day element too. Boyne is a brilliant storyteller and here he manages to spin a yarn that grabbed me on an emotional level whilst also teasing me predict what might be an acceptable outcome to a challenging current conundrum. His expression was one that I had seen before, when I was a child and living in that other place. The soldiers had worn it, almost to a man. A desire to hurt. An awareness that there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. It was mesmerizing. I could not look away and nor, it seemed, could he.” In this story, Gretel Fernsby is approaching her 92nd birthday when a new family moves into the flat below her. When she befriends the boy and the mother, she is faced with a complexity. She suspects that the husband is abusing, physically and emotionally, both the child and the wife. What to do?

Firstly I would like to thank netgalley, Random House publisher,And the wonderful author John Boyne.At the behest of his publisher, Boyne has included an author’s note with “All The Broken Places” alluding to criticisms of “Striped Pajamas.” “Writing about the Holocaust is a fraught business and any novelist approaching it takes on an enormous burden of responsibility,” he tells the reader. “The story of every person who died in the Holocaust is one that is worth telling. I believe that Gretel’s story is also worth telling.”