Book Review - All the Broken Places by John Boyne
'If every man is guilty of all the good he did not do, as Voltaire suggested, then I have spent a lifetime convincing myself that I am innocent of all the bad.'
The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas
'The boy with the striped pyjamas' is one of those books you don't forget. Released back in 2006, it was written for young adults but captured a much wider audience. The story of Bruno, the son of a concentration camp commandant who befriends a boy on the other side of the wire called Shmuel, the book had an emotionally devastating ending.
'All the broken places' picks up where that book left off. Gretel, Bruno's older sister, flees Poland and heads for post-war Paris with her mother, both keen to hide from their past. This proves to be difficult, and Gretel soon finds herself having to start again, this time as far away as it’s possible to get. But can she completely escape her past?
Gretel's story as a teenager runs parallel to her life as a 91-year-old woman living in an apartment in modern-day Mayfair, London. She is a widower and has a son who visits occasionally, and is friends with a neighbor called Heidi who is suffering from early onset dementia. She likes to keep herself to herself. But then a small boy called Henry and his parents move into the downstairs flat and it triggers memories and emotions that Gretel would prefer to stay dormant. But does it also offer her the opportunity for some redemption?
I have read other John Boyne books since his 2006 bestseller - most recently 'The hearts invisible furies' which I enjoyed. It was the story of Cyril Avery, a gay man in a rapidly modernising Ireland. Again he shows here that he's a great storyteller and develops engaging characters.
Auschwitz
Gretel is an interesting proposition for the reader. You have to ask yourself how complicit she was while living in Auschwitz. How much did she know, and how much is she telling us? I think that will affect your opinion of the book - I felt that she was young when it happened, though she could have come forward to the authorities earlier. But she's kind and thoughtful and at times has tried to do good in her life. She's also funny and strong-willed, but complicated. Very human, in other words.
It’s very much a story about grief and guilt. About trauma, and attempting to escape the past. About running, but never being able to hide. But it's also a compassionate book, and Gretel is a deeply flawed but likeable character and we can see how she has been shaped by events.
“Guilt was what kept you awake in the middle of the night or, if you managed to sleep, poisoned your dreams. Guilt intruded upon any happy moment, whispering in your ear that you had no right to pleasure. Guilt followed you down streets, interrupting the most mundane moments with remembrances of days and hours when you could have done something to prevent tragedy but chose to do nothing. When you chose to play with your dolls instead. Or stick pins in maps of Europe, following the armies’ progression. Or flirt with a handsome young lieutenant. That was guilt.”
Gretel
The author asks the question: What would you have done in twelve-year-old Gretel's shoes? Would you have alerted the authorities once the war was over? Did she turn a blind eye and pretend it wasn't happening? And with the death of her brother, did she pay a high enough price? When someone makes a mistake early in her young life, is she doomed for the rest of her days - can she be forgiven?
John Boyne himself says that “All the Broken Places” is a novel about guilt, complicity, and grief, a book that sets out to examine how culpable a young person might be, given the historical events unfolding around her, and whether such a person can ever cleanse themselves of the crimes committed by the people she loved....I have less interest in the monsters than I do in the people who knew what the monsters were doing and deliberately looked away.”
John Boyne
I find John Boyne to be a superb storyteller, asking thought provoking questions of the reader, and creating a difficult but likeable character who has such a dubious past. Reading a novel is an act of empathy and though I found myself struggling with some parts of Gretel's story, I never found her less than human. It takes great talent to pull that off.
All the Broken Places Summary
The prose and storytelling in this are of the highest quality and I zipped through this book quickly. The subject matter, I feel, is handled sensitively. This one will tug at all of the heartstrings and leave you asking uncomfortable questions like the best books will. It's a terrific work of historical fiction, and a great page-turner, and I'll be thinking about 'All the broken places' for a while to come.
Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld Digital for the Advanced Reader Copy.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 29, 2022 by Transworld digital
Book review - All the Broken Places by John Boyne