The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Title: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Author: John Boyne

Date of Publication: 5 January 2006

Genre: historical fiction

Synopsis: In Berlin, 1942, Bruno is 9 years old and is totally unaware of the meaning of the holocaust and the dreadful cruelties that his country is inflicting on the European peoples. All he knows is that his father has been promoted in his work and that he has moved to live in a comfortable house on the outskirts of Berlin. This place is very isolated from society, so there is not much to do or to play with. But everything changes one day when he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives strangely on the other side of a wire that you cannot pass through and who, like everyone who lives there, wears a very unique uniform resembling striped pyjamas.

Major themes : The theme of the Nazi holocaust in the concentration camps,represented in the figure of the military , and of the Jews

This theme leads to other issues such as his airs and graces of superiority and his way of putting the interests of Nazism before those of his own family, among others.

Main characters:

•  Bruno. He's the main character, he's nine years old.
•  Ralf. He's Bruno's father and from what the novel tells us he's a powerful, unloving man..
•  Shmuel. This is Bruno's friend, the boy who is on the other side of the wire in the concentration camp.
• Lieutenant Kotler. He is one of the lieutenants in the concentration camp.
• Furias-That's what they call Hitler,

Adaptations (on cinema, TV, theatre, literature): There is a film. 

Hot points / Weaknesses: Any part of the middle to the end of the book, or the movie, is pretty hard and maybe you cry.

Veredict / Peronal opinion: It's one of my favorite books and I've seen the movie too and I love it. It's a story that leaves a mark, I recommend it to everyone.