Customer Reviews: Read 139 more reviews...
 Spend your money on Primo Levi not this. October 3, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
What place does such a book have? John Boyne has written on one of the greatest tragedies of the last century without bothering to inform himself about the conditions in which children existed at Auschwitz. As such, this book does a grave disservice to those children who suffered and died. Its charm is a deceit that depends on an offensive suspense of reality and the known facts. No children were healthy at Auschwitz. They were dying; all of them - and it showed.
Don't spend money on this - spend it instead on Primo Levi and others like him who deliver the bolt to the heart and mind that is the reality of their suffering at Auschwitz and other similar camps.
Rubbish October 1, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found the idea of the son of a high-ranking nazi befriending a Jewish death camp inmate interguing - for the whole of thirty seconds. Then the sheer implausibility of it all dawned upon me, and I read on only out of curiosity, to see just how far the author could convolute historical facts about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust to keep the wheels of this creaking shaggy dog dog of a fable from falling off.
Where to start? Adolf Hitler (The Fury, for christsakes) and Eva Braun pop in for tea. The narrator, Bruno, has never in his nine year life heard of or never seen a photo of the Fuhrer. Purleez! If anything, Nazism was a cult of youth. Young Bruno would have soaked up National Socialism by process of osmosis. He would have been a Hitler Youth, and all that entailed. To suggest that he didn't know what a Jew was is a joke. But for the book to 'work' we must swallow Bruno's total oblivion to everything going on around him.
Then to Auschwitz (or "Out With"). Firstly Shmuel, the nine year old jewish boy of the title, wouldn't lasted more than more than a day in the camp, let alone twelve months. He wouldn't have survived the firt train-side selection. But just supposing that by some miracle he did, Boyne then expects us to accept that Shmuel would have time to sit around by the barbed wire perimeter fence all day and chew the fat - in broad daylight - with the son of the camp commandant. I know that fiction requires a certain suspension of disbelief, but come on! Then we learn that ingress/access to the most notorious of the nazi death camps is simply a matter of holding up the bottom length of barbed wire fencing and crawling under it. One, you'd have been shot. Two you'd have been electrocuted.
Historical pedantry aside, this is just a badly written book. The language is dull, the dialogue is hopeless, the descrition is cursory at best, the ending is obvious (and poorly handled at that) and I was utterly unmoved by the whole sorry endevour. Rubbish
 Excellent September 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The title intrigued me - so I ordered a copy (hadn't realised it had been made in to a film). I could not put it down. Great story. Loved the author's style of writing, it suited the book. Would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!!
Awsome September 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just the seen the film and it was very moving, I intend now to read the book. I won't say what happens at the end but It certainly did amaze me.
Gripping September 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is one of those rare commodities in the reading world today. Once I started I didn't stop until finished. As the book world becomes ever more filled with downright pap ( Katie Price/Kerry Iceland woman! et al take a bow ), how refreshing to find a novel that restores ones faith in books and their ability to move, grip and fully engage the reader. I would recomend this to anybody who likes a simple story, excellently written. Top marks from me.
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