The+Boy+in+the+Striped+Pyjamas+by+John+Boyne

My book started with introducing the main character, Bruno, who is a nine year old boy living in an enourmous house in Berlin. He loves their house and the life he's living there because of all his friends he can play with an so on. However, now their family have to move away due to Bruno's father. Bruno says it's because of the Fury they have to leave. In the beginning we don't know what the Fury is. So, Bruno and his family move to a new house which Bruno hates. There are no playing grounds. No other houses nearby. No shops. The only thing Bruno sees outside their house is one tremendous area where numerous soldiers and people in striped pyjamases walking around. Bruno is very curious about this area, but his father has told to stay away from it. Nevertheless, one day Bruno decides to make a discovery trip to the huge area. The exploration leads to a meeting with a young boy at the other side of the fence. In fact, the boy, named Shmuel, is born on the exact same day as Bruno himself. Bruno can't figure out why Shmuel doesn't like it on the other side of the fence because he would also liked to be there to play with the other boys in striped pyjamases. And Shmuel tells Bruno about how the were transfered against there will from their home in Poland and they lost everything the had ever earned and owned. Bruno is caught by surprise when hearing this, and he still wohn't except Shmuel's story. Bruno thinks Shmuel's wrong about it.

After reading about Bruno's first meeting with Shmuel, we experience a retospective to why Bruno had to move. The thing is that Bruno's father is a respectul officer in the Nazi Party. And one day they Fury is coming on a visit to Bruno's family. In addition, we realize what the Fury is. Or more precisely, //who// it is. It's actually Hitler. Adolf Hitler himself comes over to Bruno's house and tells his father he has to leave - which they do, of course (considering the order came from that high up). Bruno describes the Fury as a rude man with thin, black hair and a so utterly small moustache that it looks like the Fury has forgotten to shave this certain area. Anyhow, they then moved from Berlin and to the house outside the concentration camp in Poland, actually.

So, Bruno meets Shmuel almost every day and they share their stories. In addition, Bruno always brings some food to Shmuel because Shmuel is getting thinner and thinner and it is just skin and bone left. As the months pass, Bruno gets more and more curious about how it is on the other side of the fence, but he still cannot go over there. And one day when Bruno is reading a book in the living room, and he walks out to the kitchen, he gets surprised and his mouth makes a shape of an O. There is Shmuel sitting. In his kitchen. Just washing up dishes. The thing is that Lieutenant Kotler (a soldier working inside the concentration camp) has taken Shmuel over to Bruno's house so he can clean up the dishes because Bruno's family is having a party. In fact, Lieutenant Kotler is using Shmuel. When Bruno sees Shmuel, he offers him some food. Shmuel doesn't know what to do because he is not allowed to do this, but Bruno convinces him to take the food. Shmuel does that, but unfortunately, Lieutenant Kotler enters the kitchen and Shmuel is being punished the next couple of weeks.

At this point I have actually decided to mot say anything more about what takes place next. We are almost at the end of the road here. The thing I can tell you, is that the last part of the book is the most exciting one.

//The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas// is really an absolutely astonishing book. It deals with a subject which, in my opinion, is just unbeliveable for the people living today. I sincerely think that we are unable to undestand how terrible this event was. After I finished reading the book, I couldn't sleep that night. I just lied in bed without falling asleep because my mind was full of thought over the Holocaust. I would thus recommend everybody to read this book - in hope that we one day could //nearly// understand the most terrible thing that has happened in a long, long time.