Book Talk | All The Broken Places

My husband usually gets me a random book for Christmas. This year it wasn't super random. I have had a big interest in the Holocaust since I was probably about 10 years old. Naturally, I ended up watching the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which I would remember for years to come. I'm notorious for having people watch disturbing or sad movies on movie night, so of course I had to make my now husband watch it with me when we were first dating. So this past Christmas he got me the sequel to the book (that I didn't even realize was a book) and of course, I needed to read it to further my anxiousness during these backwards times in the U.S.. Here are my thoughts.

About the Author

John Boyne is the author of thirteen novels for adults, six for younger readers, and a collection of short stories. His 2006 novel, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, was a number one New York Times bestseller with more than eleven million copies sold worldwide, and has been adapted for cinema, theater, ballet, and opera. His many international bestsellers include The Heart’s Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky. He has won three Irish Book Awards, along with a host of other international literary prizes. His novels are published in more than fifty languages. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

About the Book

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She lives a quiet, comfortable life, despite her deeply disturbing, dark past. She doesn't talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age 12. She doesn't talk about the grim post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich's most notorious extermination camps.

All The Broken Places moves back and forth in time between Gretel's girlhood in Germany to present-day London as a woman whose life has been haunted by the past. Now, Gretel faces a similar crossroads to one she encountered long ago. Back then, she denied her own complicity, but now, faced with a chance to interrogate her guilt, grief, and remorse, she can choose to save a young boy. If she does, she will be forced to reveal the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting. This time, she can make a different choice than before -- whatever the cost to herself.

Book Talk 

Although sad and, at specific times, gruesome, I found All The Broken Places to be a powerful read.

I've digested my fair share of WWII stories from the perspective of the Jews, the Allies, the ones bombed, the dictators themselves, but never from the perspective of a young girl fleeing from Germany with her mother because her father was a high-ranking general and they were escaping the punishments of the world. Now I can say I have and what an interesting insight this gave me and I'm sure all eyes who read this book. 

Through the words of our main character, Gretel, we learn of what horrid things people did if they found that you fled Germany. We also find out the great lengths these people went to avoid prosecution and start a new life in France, London, and even Australia. And how all that running away eventually catches up to you in the end and has you making amends, even if it costs you your freedom. 

Switching back and forth from modern day to present, we follow Gretel until the end (well almost). Our author created Gretel to feel like a real person who the reader may not always like, but that's what make sit real. We as people are not always likable. We hold things in. We keep secrets for years on end. We try to forget. We sometimes may even think horrid thoughts that we never say aloud, like Gretel trying not to confess that despite his evil she still loved the man she called father. 

 Along the way, we also meet a few prominent characters that both accept and reject Gretel for her past. There are also a couple of characters where we never get to find out how they feel about her past. Either way you look at it, our author gives us the reasoning of these characters feelings with passion and emotion.

All the Broken Places is a story that I, and any other person who reads this book, won't soon forget. It's a story that starts and ends tragically, yet triumphantly as well. It's not a love story, nor a happy one, but it's a story that we should all keep in mind.

"Like all those who study that era, I'm hopinh for answers in that vast library of literature that has been produced over the last seventy-five years. Nonetheless, I'm conscious that my search is a fool's errand, for there are none. In trying to understand, I can only hope to remind, to remember." - John Boyne

Until next time, Happy Reading!