Another excellent novel from John Boyce, it held my attention from start to finish. The story that begins in the 1940's, to present day. Gretel was the 12 year old girl, in Germany, whose father was a commandant in one of the most notorious death camps of the time. She spends her life trying to hide her past, and deal with the guilt that is never far away. Then she meets a little boy called Henry, and she has the chance to do something , and make a
real difference to someone else's life. Thoroughly recommend this book, really well written and it gives you a lot to think about.

Without a doubt this is my book of the year. The sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, written during the quiet of the Covid Lockdown, this is an outstanding piece of work.

It follows the life of Gretel, describes how her life developed after the War ended. She is haunted by guilt and grief and copes by locking away her youth and rarely allowing herself to think clearly about it.

In the end, however, she is forced to take a stand, in an entirely expected way, for the sake of another little boy, equally and painfully vulnerable.

I read this very slowly, as such beautiful and clever prose demands. To speak, with an authentic voice, the words of a 91 year old woman, is no mean feat.

Having read and enjoyed John Boyne's 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' many years ago, I was fascinated to read this related novel, detailing the life of the daughter of a concentration camp commandant during the Second World War. It examines the life and conscience of Gretel Fernsby through various stages of her later life and provides a different perspective on the subject through a character caught up in the desperate events when only a child. It is beautifully written and structured, interleaving the various stages in her life to show how her ideas and understanding evolve, particularly through the latest events in the present day, where she is confronted more forcibly with the details of her history she has been careful to conceal. I found the subtle exploration of Gretel's thoughts uncompromisingly honest, however uncomfortable, which is why the book engrosses and enthrals to the very end. Wonderful!

I love John Boyne’s books and couldn’t wait to read his new one, All the Broken Places. It’s a sequel to his 2006 children’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but this time it’s aimed at adults. Although I haven’t read the first book, I have seen the film and that helped me understand the background of the characters and the references to things that had happened in the past. If you’re not familiar with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, though, I don’t think it would matter too much as this book does work on its own.

All the Broken Places begins in the present day, 2022, and is narrated by ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby. Gretel has lived in the same luxury apartment building in London since the 1960s; most of the other residents have also been there for a long time, so when a new family move into the flat below, Gretel is curious to meet her new neighbours. However, she is alarmed to discover that the family includes a nine-year-old boy, Henry, who brings back memories of her own brother at the same age – memories Gretel has spent her whole life trying to suppress.

As she gets to know Henry and his parents, Gretel quickly becomes aware that something is not right. She wants to help, but is afraid of making the situation worse. At the same time, she is forced to confront her own past when, as the young daughter of a Nazi commandant of a Polish concentration camp, she and her mother fled to France at the end of the war and tried to build new lives for themselves under new identities. Gretel has lived with the shame and guilt ever since, but now it seems she might have an opportunity to redeem herself.

As the story of Gretel’s life unfolds, we are taken on a journey from Poland to France, Australia and then England. Chapters set in the past alternate with chapters set in the present as Gretel battles with her conscience again to try to do the right thing for Henry. There are not many books with protagonists in their nineties and I admired her for the courage, resilience and wisdom she displays in old age, despite what she may have done or not done when she was younger.

I really enjoyed this book, although at times it’s an uncomfortable read and often a moving one. John Boyne has shown previously that he’s not afraid to tackle controversial subjects in his novels and I’m sure this is another one that will divide opinion. Some readers will take the view that anyone who was complicit in the atrocities of the Holocaust deserves no pity; others will have sympathy for a twelve-year-old girl who, although she was at least partly aware of what was happening, lacked the strength, will and opportunity to do anything about it and has regretted it ever since. This is a theme Boyne has explored several times before, particularly in A History of Loneliness (a novel about the child abuse scandal within the Catholic church and probably my favourite of his books) – whether by turning a blind eye to the actions of others we are as much to blame as they are and whether it’s our responsibility to speak out if we know something is wrong.

This is a fascinating novel - highly recommended!

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same mansion block in London for decades. She leads a comfortable, quiet life, despite her dark and disturbing past. She doesn't talk about her escape from Germany over seventy years before. She doesn't talk about the post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, the commandant of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps.
Then, a young family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can't help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a violent argument between Henry's mother and his domineering father, one that threatens Gretel's hard-won, self-contained existence.
Gretel is faced with a chance to expiate her guilt, grief and remorse and act to save a young boy - for the second time in her life. But to do so, she will be forced to reveal her true identity to the world. Will she make a different choice this time, whatever the cost to herself? I couldn’t stop reading because this book got a hold of me and refused to let go. This is a corker! Heartbreaking historical fiction at its most dazzling.

After reading the first few chapters of this book, I decided to stop and reread The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I’m so glad I did, as it gave so much more depth and insight into both books.

Whereas the first book is told through the eyes of a child (Bruno), the sequel is told by his older sister Gretel, and filled in many of the gaps and unanswered questions that I had only guessed the answers to.

The book begins with Gretel, now a 91 year old lady befriending a little boy who moves into the flat below hers. He reminds her of her little brother, and she is forced to remember the events of the past and how they shaped her life.

People are not born with hatred or prejudice, but as the daughter of a Nazi Commandant, Gretel is brought up to hate the Jewish people and whilst I understand this is due to her upbringing, I kept thinking that surely she knew it was wrong to turn a blind eye to certain events that happened when she was a teenager. I think this is what brought so much turmoil into her later life as well as the part she played in her brother’s disappearance.

Has she got the strength to redeem herself by saving Henry, but in doing so, exposing her past?

This book is going to divide opinion - can people sympathise with Gretel or will they feel she deserves all the unhappiness and guilt that has shadowed her life over the years?

To me this is what makes John Boyne such a wonderful author - this isn’t just a story, it will make people discuss, argue, agree and disagree - as all good books should.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what an amazing, emotional read. This is a sequel to the boy in the striped pyjamas and it doesn't disappoint. Gretel is ninety one years old and lives in a beautiful flat in London but no one knows what happened in her past and as it is told in alternate chapters along side the present day it marries together seamlessly. When a new family moves in the flat beneath Gretel events take place which makes her uncomfortable and things become more uncomfortable for her. A fantastic story that is heartbreaking at times but beautifully written and so many things are finally revealed. It deserves more than 5 stars its brilliant and highly recommended

It is many years since I read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I only read it once, like many I expect, and was not able to watch the film due to the shock of the ending. A book that really stayed with me. My daughter read it a number of times and, yes it’s a work of fiction, but I really believe gave her a good introduction to a terrifying period of history.
This sequel is set 80 years later in the main and is the story of Gretel, only 12 years old in the original book, and now a woman in her 90s. Gretel has spent her life denying her role in the past and trying to escape her family history, revealing to very few her true identity. But that is about the change.
This is definitely more an adult read, and whilst for me it doesn’t have the power of the first, it is a worthy sequel. Confronting different issues….the impact on a young girl of the atrocities committed by her father, her own role in that as well as the immediate part she played in her brothers death.

This is a wonderful follow up to the boy in the striped pyjamas and lived up to the original story. It follows the life of Gretel, Brunos sister as she navigates her life after the war, it deals with her struggle to live with the legacy of who her father was and her grief for the loss of her family particularly her brother Bruno. Her conflict in trying to keep her identity secret versus atoning for her father's crimes. If you enjoyed The Boy in The Stripped Pyjamas this is a must read follow up.

A follow up, or follow on, from the end of the heartbreaking The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.
This is now Gretel’s story and tells of how she came to be a wealthy woman living in a London flat alone at the age of 91. In flashback scenes the story unfolds Gretel’s life since leaving the war behind, first with her mother and then alone. All those years of guilt and secret from Nazi Germany.
But what other secrets is Gretel’s keeping? And how does the 9 year old boy who has just moved into the empty flat below hers fit in?
A moving read. I had sympathy and fury for Gretel at different times in the story. It’s certainly not a sequel to Boyne’s first Holocaust book but if you read this one second there will parts of the story to remind and reminisce.

I have tended in recent years to avoid fiction set during the Holocaust. I’ve often lately been unhappy with it being used as a convenient plot device and have steered clear. I made an exception for this book, trusting John Boyne’s empathy and sensitivity from my reading of his other work, including of course The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas to which this is a sequel.

He doesn’t disappoint. Reading this is a profoundly moving experience, filling in the back story from his earlier book (including its ending, so beware) and tracing the following decades in the lives of the survivors. The main character is Gretel, child of the Camp Commandant, whose life has been blighted by grief and remorse, and who hopes to redeem herself when the opportunity presents itself to her. I believed in all the characters, damaged in one way or another and yearning to escape the past, though one link between them revealed near the end was a bit of a stretch.

There is little to add to John Boyne’s afterword:

‘I would say that it is a novel about guilt, complicity and grief, a book that sets out to examine how culpable a young person might be, given the historical events unfolding around her, and whether such a person can ever cleanse themselves of the crimes committed by the people she loved.’

Says it all.

All The Broken Places is John Boynes’ sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. In 1946 Gretel, teenager sister of Bruno, was forced to flee Germany and the impending reprisals as the daughter of the Commandant of a Death Camp. She is now a ninety-one-year-old comfortably off widow, living in an upmarket area of London. Chapters alternate between her life then and now.
These days Gretel, having lived her life under a burden of guilt and shame, still feels the need to keep her background to herself.
All The Broken Places is about guilt, complicity, grief and arguably courage. On two separate occasions Gretel draws back from exposing a war criminal and thereby incriminating herself, instead leaving the weight of the decision to a third party.
While John Boyne is an unequalled storyteller and examines the subject of complicity at length, I imagine that many might come away feeling that this subject needs to be written about with more gravitas. Older Gretel also feels such a different character to younger Gretel that I had trouble reconciling them. I found myself thinking of interesting older female characters written by Joanna Cannon, about Lissa Evans’ Mattie and Richard Osman’s retirees and suddenly there was Gretel in the garden reading The Thursday Murder Club.
There was an interesting, if a little awkwardly thrust- in twist towards the end, but the sequence of events leading up to the conclusion becomes almost farcical, perhaps deliberately, but it felt a bit rushed.

A Page turning adult sequel to the fictional story of "The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas".

All the Broken places is largely told from the perspective of Gretel during the course of her life following on from the events of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas". Gretel and her mother flee Poland after the liberation under new pseudonames to France following the aftermath of "that other place". They are forced to change their identity in a world that seeks justice and retribution for the crimes they were part of. Gretel soon discovers that her history will continue to haunt her despite her best endeavours to leave the past behind.

Fast forward to present day London. Gretel is a 91 year old widow living a somewhat secluded yet content life in an affluent apartment. Her wayward son Caden is keen to introduce the idea of selling up so he can finance his fourth marriage to Eleanor. When a new family move into the apartment block everything changes for Gretel. She senses something is not quite right and soon forms a friendship with a young boy called Henry that brings back many regressed memories of her beloved brother and her sordid past. Has her experience with grief taught her to submit to the powers that be or will she do what it takes to protect those she loves. Is she willing to reveal who she really is to save him from his abusive father? Is this a second chance? Boyne 's ability to depict so many likeable and despicable character traits lead us to a Gretel rich in diversity and complexity. Each short chapter quickens pace as the finale reveals itself in an unexpected plot twist.

It is always an ambitious task to follow up with a sequel that matches its predecessor but Boyne excels in this stylish page turning heartbreaking tale of guilt and the aftermath of a catastrophic event. A gripping and thoughtful story of grief, family trauma and the people we love.

This incredible story will easily leave you wanting more . Highly recommend this multi layered story lest we ever forget.

Thank you in advance to Netgalley for an ARC. This book is due to be released September 2022.

This is a terrific sequel to Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.Telling the story of Gretel, Bruno's sister. She is 91 years old and has been living with guilt since the war.. It is moving, thought-provoking and will stay with you long after you finish it. I loved it and would certainly encourage people to reread The boy in Striped pyjamas then follow on with this beautifully written book.

An amazing moving novel that takes up a loved story and turns it into something rich and interesting. I fully recommend this book that you will devour

‘All The Broken Places’ by John Boyle is essentially an adult sequel to his 2004 children’s novel ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’. Telling the story of Bruno’s sister Gretel, it is a novel about a life lived with guilt and the consequences for her and the people around her. John Boyle is one of my favourite authors and this latest novel doesn’t disappoint.

John Boyne I applaud you! I am already a huge fan and have loved many of your books! This book had me glued from page one! I particularly enjoyed the fact that it went from the past to present easily, with no confusion. A story that at one point had me crying out in pain, I felt their pain immensely.. The story was so well written and just made me want more and more! Its 10 stars from me.

I love John Boyne's work and was so happy to be offered the chance to read and review this in advance of publication. I was not disappointed. I had not read the blurb so it only dawned on me gradually that it was the sequel to The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. I am not going to reveal any of the story because it was such a pleasure for me to read it unawares that I want to give others the opportunity to do so as well. Suffice it to say that I had to force myself to put it down because it was so compelling that I wanted to keep reading, but I also wanted to savour it. It gets many many more stars than five from me.