The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 historical novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. The plot concerns a German boy named Bruno whose father is the commandant of Auschwitz and Bruno's friendship with a Jewish detainee named Shmuel. Boyne wrote the entire first draft in two and a half days, without sleeping much; but also said that he was quite a serious student of Holocaust-related literature for years before the idea for the novel even came to him. The book has received mixed reviews; positive reviews have praised the story as a morality tale. It has been criticized by scholars and historians of the Holocaust as well as memorial organizations. Negative reviews have noted the book's historical inconsistencies, and the potential damage it could cause to people's Holocaust education. In both 2007 and 2008, it was the best-selling book of the year in Spain, and it reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. The book was adapted into a homonymous film in 2008, a ballet in 2017 and an opera entitled A Child in Striped Pyjamas in 2023. It was followed by a sequel, All the Broken Places, which was published in 2022.