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?
Irish author John Boyne is best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, which was later turned into a film. All the Broken Places is the masterful sequel to this classic bestseller, taking Bruno’s sister, Gretel, now in her nineties, on a journey to a place she never goes – the past. Through her story, he explores the aftermath of the war and the effects of a lifetime of guilt.
In the author’s note Boyne writes, “I first conceived the idea for All the Broken Places in 2004, shortly after completing the final draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and I knew immediately that I would write it one day.” Over the years, he kept a file titled Gretel’s Story, and made notes about her, her life, and what had become of her. His fascination grew until he found himself in the Covid-19 lockdown and was compelled to finally write this novel. He says, “Revisiting characters from an earlier work can be a risky but exhilarating experience for a novelist, particularly if those characters come from the best-known book of one’s career.”
Risky, yes, but in this case, so incredibly worthwhile.
Boyne has delivered a stunning exploration of guilt, complicity and grief. Set in Paris, Sydney and London in the 1940s and 1950s, and again in present day London, Boyne asks the question, when horrific crimes against humanity are being perpetrated, how culpable are young people? And can those involved ever redeem themselves? Gretel is the perfect character to explore those questions through. She’s a fascinating character who has spent a lifetime maintaining the secrets and shame of her past, until faced with another young boy, and more choices to make. Perhaps differently this time.
All the Broken Places is a tour de force that will stay with you long after the final page.
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