Reviewed by Karen (Retired Bookseller); All The Broken Places is a profoundly moving, beautifully written sequel to John Boyne's novel The Boy In Stripped Pyjamas.
The story moves from 1946 Europe to present time following the lives of those that survived. Their struggles with greif, trauma and guilt, lives changed forever. Written with compassion, this novel is very thought provoking and a gripping read, highly recommended.
From the author of the globally bestselling, multi-million-copy classic, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and The Heart's Invisible Furies.
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?
Family life fiction, Historical fiction
Paperback
John Boyne
384 pages
H: 234mm W: 153mm Spine: 27mm
Weight: 465 grams