John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is one of those books that is both charming and profound.
Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in Pre-war Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and army Commandant father. The Fury has great things planned for Father.
So great that the family is transferred to a house next door to Out-with so Father can work.
Bruno hates the harsh environment that is so different from the liveliness of Berlin, his grandmother and friends. It doesn’t seem to be the best place for his mother and sister either. Mom starts yelling and taking liquid treatments (boozing it up) and the sister is doing an awful lot of hair flips for the cocky solider who ruffles Bruno’s hair.
Let to his own devices, Bruno starts to explore and finds one of the boys in the striped pajamas who he can see from his upstairs window. Bruno is painfully naive by today’s standards but if you’d never heard of Nazi Germany and concentration camps, the holocaust, and it was the 40s and children had a place, then naivety in these matters can be forgiven. Bruno faces the boy in the striped pajamas who is on the other side of the fence and he makes friends. Just as two boys out in the woods should do.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a haunting little tale about fences that should always be crossed and ones that should never be encountered.