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  • Published: 1 June 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409097518
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas




An international bestseller and a truly unforgettable and life-changing story.

Lines may divide us, but hope will unite us.

Nine year old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.

He’s oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country.

All he knows is that he has moved from Berlin to a desolate area where he has no one to play with.

Until he meets Shmuel.

Shmuel lives in a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence, where everyone wears a uniform of striped pyjamas.

Despite the wire fence separating them, the two boys become best friends.

As they grow closer, Bruno starts to learn the terrible truth that lies beyond the fence, and what life is like for his friend.

John Boyne’s classic novel explores the friendship and loss of innocence of Bruno and Shmuel, during one of the worst points in history.

  • Published: 1 June 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409097518
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

About the author

John Boyne

John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, six for younger readers and a collection of short stories. Perhaps best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, John’s other novels, notably The Absolutist and A History of Loneliness, have been widely praised and are international bestsellers. Most recently, The Heart's Invisible Furies was a Richard & Judy Bookclub word-of-mouth bestseller, and A Ladder to the Sky was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in association with Listowel Writers’ Week.

His novels are published in over fifty languages.

Also by John Boyne

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Praise for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

A powerful and emotionally-charged piece of literature

Yorkshire Evening Post

A small wonder of a book. Bruno's education is conducted slowly, through a series of fleeting social encounters rather than by plunging him into a nightmare landscape

Guardian

An account of a dreadful episode, short on actual horror but packed with overtones that remain in the imagination. Plainly and sometimes archly written, it stays just ahead of its readers before delivering its killer punch in the final pages

Independent

An extraordinary tale of friendship and the horrors of war seen through the eyes of two young boys, it's stirring stuff. Raw literary talent at its best. More please!

Irish Independent

It's that very rare thing - a book so simple, so seemingly effortless, that it's almost perfect

Irish Independent

Overwhelmingly powerful . . . This is a story so exceptional and vivid that it cannot be erased from the mind

Carousel

Quite impossible to put down, this is the rare kind of book that doesn't leave your head for days. Word of mouth should be strong and this has the potential to cross over to an adult audience. A unique and captivating novel, which I believe deserves huge success

The Bookseller

Set to become a publishing phenomenon

Irish Examiner
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