Mandira Saha

The author has written it from the point of view of a 9-year-old, the way he sees the world. Infact the author -John Boyne has gone into great details of elaborating and mentioning each thing from a 9-year olds perspective. Even the chapter titles makes one believe as a 9-year-old has has written them. The narrative is simple and it makes one fall in love with Bruno. The author has brilliantly used a child's imagination in depicting his whereabouts, people's demeanor and their character. Before starting this book though, I did read a few reviews, which said, 'it is sad' and hence all throughout, my imagination was set on, Bruno getting hurt. Maybe because I am a woman or the brilliance in the author's words, I so wanted to protect Bruno all along. And here is the truth - The boy in striped pyjamas is based on the Holocaust. Yes, that in itself sounds deadly and scary. But what took my heart was the narration. the author engrosses you from starting to the end into the life of Bruno. Infact for people who love books which set you free to imagine while laying the plot, this is a treasure. I loved it, I could almost see Bruno walking around with his tiny feet and little shoes getting dirty in mud by all the walking and the 'young man' sitting and cleaning his shoes at the end of the day. I'll give full credit to the author for being simple yet informative to set the perfect stage for imagination. The way he plays with words and leaves certain things unsaid, unspoken yet known is ....love. A book written on a serious topic depicting it's effect on kids. It does make one think what all we do, have a great impact on children around and we all need to be cautious about it.