Firstly, many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This is an extremely thought provoking and enjoyable book which is a continuation of an individuals personal story as opposed to a true sequel to the well known 'Boy In The Striped Pyjamas' making it preferable, but not necessary, to have read the latter prior to this book.

The main protagonist is 91 years old Gretel who over the last 70 years has been riddled with guilt about her own and her family's part in the horrific events of Auschwitz and lives with a constant fear that someone will find out who she really is. The impact of this on her day to day life is all encompassing and detailed skilfully by the author in a multitude of ways.

Boyne uses several different timelines from the 1940’s through to the present day to capture Gretel's story but all blend well and, unlike some other texts, are easy to differentiate. The inclusion of events in Germany, Poland, France, Australia and London all add to the richness of the account.

There are several twists and many interesting characters developed around Gretel's story making this a thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended read.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (there are reviews like that out there already if that's what you are looking for).

This was a very interesting - if at times rather sad and unpleasant - book. Although I've read other novels by John Boyne, I had not read "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", but had an understanding of the outline of the plot. This novel follows the story of the said boy's sister Gretel (and initially mother too) as they try to move on with new lives and new identities away from Germany.

The plot moves back and forth through time and several locations - France, Australia, and London - which I felt added to the richness of the story - far more than if it had been told in a linear fashion.

The section set in France was quite unpleasant at times, describing how people with any association with the Nazis were treated (regardless of whether or not they had been involved in any atrocities). Although I did not entirely like Gretel or her mother at this point, I felt very sorry for them.

Having managed to escape to Australia, Gretel manages to make a new start, but is then thrown off course by meeting a former Nazi who has also moved there. Rather than ignoring him, she embarks on a (to me) rather bizarre course of action, which I felt showed that she had a very unpleasant and cruel streak in her character. At this point I liked her even less than before...but persevered with the novel as I wanted to learn more of her story.

For me, the most interesting sections of the novel were those based in London - when Gretel is 91 years old! By this time she's a widow, with a grown up son, who is keen for her to move from her valuable apartment (where she's lived a quiet life for decades) so he can get his hands on some money! Gretel also looks after another, younger lady in her apartment block who has developed dementia, and who is in turn being pestered by her son to move with him to Australia for similar reasons...

Into this mix comes a family, headed by a film producer, with a neurotic wife and a small boy - but all is not well within that family, as the man is the worst sort of manipulative bully. The best side of Gretel's nature comes into play as she befriends the wife and son; she clearly comes to care about them and wants to help. The unpleasant film producer meets his match when he tries to blackmail Gretel about her past. Gretel takes decisive action at great cost to herself, but in doing so undoubtedly saves the little boy from a terrible future - so feels redeemed in many ways.

There are a few twists in the tale along the way (I guessed the main one!). The pace is variable - at times rather slow - but it's a well crafted plot and the characters are believable.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

While still peppered with humour, this is one of the more wrenching and emotionally mature novels one could wish to read. And all of it can be reduced to the elevator pitch, "a sequel to 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' but for adults". And that pretty much is all you need to read before the book itself, that being the truth – it takes the adult woman who was once the older sister of the death camp commandant's son that mistakenly got disposed of, and gives her a life right up to the present day. Boyne writes here of it being planned as a kind of swansong piece, but I felt it had to be written here and now and produced here and now, at one of the last times the woman can give a reportage from the year her story culminates in. If he'd left it any longer, her longevity would have dropped this too into the semi-fable world of the original, or made the whole thing a historical piece.

Now, I always find it easier to report the flaws than eulogise in sensible ways about the merits of a book, so I will hereby list ALL the flaws I found in this, with the proviso that they may have been removed by the time this hits the shops.

One, someone driving a French car in France manages to have his left hand and not the natural right in a girl's lap, but hey ho. Two, a measured and precise and cultured woman sharing a bottle of wine is forced by the author to express surprise that it's "almost half gone already" when two glasses have been taken out. The "almost" and the surprise are both ridiculous rookie mistakes.

Yup, a long list of problems here, then. From one of the most consistently brilliant long-form authors the British Isles can currently lay claim to, this is outstanding. And I refuse to struggle to define why when the book is demanding your attention instead.

This a fantastic sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and this time it is the story of Bruno's sister Gretel who is now 91 years old. Unlike The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which was predominantly aimed at a young audience this is an adult novel.
I am a huge John Boyne fan, his stories are always captivating and this is no exception, it is an intriguing, very well written book exploring guilt, grief, family and relationships and I highly recommend it!

I was quite sucked into the story and I liked the protagonist at her old age. I didn’t really like her as a young girl and some memories were a bit strange. It is a very interesting story of guilt, and it was fascinating to see how different people live with it differently. At the same time the story felt as not going into depth as I would wish, some ideas were only there as a background and I considered them either unnecessary or I felt that I would wish more attention. That’s why I can recommend the story but it was not the perfect one for me.

This is an excellent book which is a continuation of an individuals personal story rather then an actual sequel to the well known Boy In The Striped Pajamas.

Our main protagonist is a elderly Gretel, Bruno’s older sister who over the last 70 odd years has been riddled with a gut wrenching guilt about her horrific past from her youth in Poland and also events in Australia, and a constant fear that someone will find out who she really is.

Gretel’s character is someone you can sympathise with, but also at times in the book can be found to be infuriating, for example when you see at times that she would have wanted the Third Reich to have been successful. But her decision to do the ‘right thing’ to save another is also admirable after a lifetime of living with a type of survivors guilt. I personally loved her final meeting with Alex.

There are a few different timelines from the 1940’s, through to Gretals present day, but all blend well and easy to differentiate, that in itself is a great skill.

Truly 07/07
This dark thriller is a slow burn, and a huge negative to me is the repetitiveness but saying that the book does pick up its pace and I found it quite enjoyable. However I did not particularly like any characters.
I do like a book with a double time line and I enjoyed how this gave the earlier story from a young Sophie.
I am glad I persevered and read through to the end.
I would definitely try another book by this author.

This was the book I didnt know I needed, until the publishers announced it.
The complete feeling of satisfaction at knowing what happened to those left behind at the end of Boy, was so good, but to find out the before too.
Again, something I didn't know I needed until I had it.
I was torn throughout this book, on how guilty Gretel was in the original book, and have yet to decide.
Her future though, she revealed herself a little at a time, and by the end, I liked the old bird quite a lot.

Some surprising turn of events, but mainly thoughts on guilt and grief make this a book worth spending your time with.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne is one of the most memorable books that I read during my childhood. I often wondered what happened next to Bruno's family and I loved getting the opportunity to read its' sequel All The Broken Places. I really enjoyed the plot of the book especially the dual timeline and read the book over the course of one sitting. Sometimes sequels can be disappointing but I really enjoyed All the Broken Places.

This book gripped me as tightly from start to finish. It is a great example of how to write a not very warm character. I just could not put the book down because I wanted to know what happened next. I liked how the author used the different time periods tomve the story on.

John Boyne hit the big time with The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. That novel, simple in its narrative but packing quite the emotional punch, seemed an unlikely book to have a sequel. Yet here it is, expectation resting on its shoulders. All The Broken Places, Boyne tells us in an afterforward, was percolating in his brain almost as he finished that first novel, yet it took 16 years for us to finally be allowed the pleasure of reading it.

As I had not read that novel, I finished The Boy one evening, and the next day started and finished this new novel. I will say that I don't think you need to have read The Boy to follow this, but it does help shape and influence your reactions if you have.

Gretel is the sister of Bruno from The Boy and the central figure of here, and this novel takes us through the decades, from post-war France, to Australia in the 1950s, London in the same, and London in the present. A lesser novel would have told these events in chronological order, but Boyne mixes it - one chapter the present, one the past - and though it might sound for a complex read, it is not. Boyne is too great a writer to let the structure get away from him. One story follows Gretels attempts to escape from her past and one follows her burgeoning relationship and involvement in the lives of a new family that move into the apartment below. I will not spoil any of the twists of this novel, but it is thrilling, disturbing, frightening and beautiful.

I found this a much fuller, richer novel than The Boy. Unlike that novel, this one is for adults. It is more emotionally complex, more detailed, and for me much more engaging. At times I wondered what I would do had I been in Gretel's place. It is a novel, an hour after I've finished reading it that I'm still thinking about it, it got under my skin in a good way. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

5 star read - I really enjoyed this wonderful novel which takes in various time points since the 1940s and blends it seamlessly with a gripping tale set in the modern day as well.

John Boyne is one of those authors where you can fully immerse yourself in the story because you don't need to be worried there will be some ridiculous twist that you didn't see coming, because you couldn't possibly have ever happened. Instead, All The Broken Places is a natural life story about a character which will stay with you after you've finished.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this fabulous book.

John Boyne cannot write books quick enough to satisfy my need for his beautiful writing and amazing storytelling.
In the follow up to his hugely popular Boy In The Striped Pajamas we meet Gretel, consumed with guilt about her past and fear that someone will find out who she really is. From 1946 Berlin to present day London, her story is heartbreaking but beautiful. I loved every word and wanted nothing but peace and happiness for this main character despite her history. Just fantastic!

The sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, is brilliant. Gretel, a ninety-one year old woman is the protagonist, and her life is charted, showing the development of guilt and realistically conveying how people were expected to suppress their emotions. What is excellent here is the development of these feelings, and the way in which Gretel's life experience leads her to make decisions she might otherwise have not had to make, and, of course, the juxtapositioning of Gretel against the life of a young boy is genius and very well done.

Beautiful prose, and bound to be a success because it really is a worthy sequel.

I have read and really enjoyed a couple of John Boyne's , so I was looking forward to reading this one and it did not disappoint. What a fascinating book - jumping between the present and the past. I could really relate to all the characters although I didn't particularly like them all. Gretel was a someone you could have empathy with but also wonder how she was able to live with her guilt. I loved the little twist towards the end - but I won't give the secret away!

Over the last 2 years of the pandemic I lost my love of reading. I cannot understand why, as surely it would have been the ideal time to catch up on reading, My love of reading has been rekindled by this book and I look forward to reading many more of this calibre.

Thank you to the publisher for letting me have a proof copy in exchange for a review.

I had no idea this book was a sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, although I noticed coincidences early on and then double-checked. It is the story of Gretel, the sister of the boy in the original novel.

I enjoyed the dual timeline narrative, and found myself hooked on both parts of the story. It was a real page-turner, and I liked the questions it asks around guilt and culpability. Some parts of the story felt a little contrived at times, and not always completely believable, but overall this was a very readable and well-written novel, as well as being thought-provoking and sad.

I've had the great pleasure of being sent the last three of John Boyne's novels by his publisher and his books just amaze me.
My favourite of his, The Heart's Invisible Furies, has never been matched however this latest of his is definitely up there with the best.
All The Broken Places takes you back and forth between present and past and explores Gretel's relationship with her family and how she has managed to navigate following The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas.
It's gut-wrenching at times and you cannot help but feel compassion even when you want to detest.
Highly recommend this latest masterpiece!

John Boyne is a beautiful writer and deep thinker, and his novels are always thought-provoking and immersing. ‘All the Broken Places’ is no exception. His stories set during war are the most haunting, but this one has a twist on that. His protagonist, ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby, almost a recluse in her elegant apartment in London, 2022, takes us back through her life, a life lived in fear and guilt and grief as she tries to forgive herself for her part in the most heinous war crimes in living memory. Yet she was only twelve, a child who had no agency in those crimes, and had no understanding of what those crimes were. Who could blame her, this child of 12? Even today, with all we have learned, it is still almost impossible to believe such atrocities could have been committed by fellow humans. But Gretel has had her life, a life on the run, a life of lies, to figure out how she might make amends, how she might atone in some small way for her father’s crimes, for her own complicity as she refused to see, refused to understand, and sacrificed, by her refusal to understand, her own brother. Her own brother who did understand. Yet still she turns her head away. Fear? Guilt? Her memories of a father she loved, looked up to, perhaps still loves? For me, the novel’s most difficult question was what would I have done in her place? As a twelve-year-old, what could Gretel have done differently? But as a 30, 50, 70, 90-year old, what might I have done then? This is, of course, the story of the sister of the boy in striped pyjamas.

This book! I think it'll stay with me for a while. It covers a huge expanse of time but still answers every question about what happened to these characters. It's full of emotion but also shows how grief and guilt can entwine themselves into a person's character over time. I enjoyed all time frames and settings. The story of the new neighbours was probably the least gripping, though still necessary to Gretel's story. There are a few twists along the way but mostly it's Gretel herself who kept me reading, desperate to know what happened. I did wish we had more of Cait! She was a great character. And touches like the pair of glasses were very well done.

The whole thing is magnificent!

John Boyne is a master of transcendent historical fiction and tales of redemption, carefully crafted in prose that leaves a powerful emotional impact. I found this one a challenging read, being set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, with a plot that moves backwards and forwards in time. However, Boyne’s versatile ability to write in a woman’s voice as convincingly as a man’s is very impressive - and I could not resist getting caught up in the elderly female protagonist’s story.

*4.5 stars*

Gretel Fernsby is in her nineties, but she’s bright as a button and sharp as a knife - she has to be, because Gretel has a secret, a secret that she’s carried with her for most of her life, one she’s determined to keep to herself.

In 1946, German born Gretel, and her mother escaped Poland for Paris, after a monumental event took place in their personal lives. Physically they may have fled their past, but psychologically, the shame and accompanying fear meant they would never really find peace.

In present day London, widowed Gretel lives in an upmarket luxury apartment block, where each apartment is worth many millions, but she likes a quiet life, rarely bothers with the neighbours (except for one lady across the landing), and she sees her son only occasionally. Her preference for privacy means there’s less chance of anyone finding out about her life during the Second World War, that is until 9 year old Henry moves into the apartment below hers!

Sequel to the hugely successful The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, All The Broken Places is a moving story about grief, guilt and complicity. Needless to say, that with John Boyne at the helm, we’re treated to a storyline full of insight, from the ugliness of life through to the purity of love. Don’t miss this one!