The Boy in the striped pyjamas

"...Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go."

Bruno, a child of nine years is unhappy because he had to leave Berlin to come and live in a place called "Out-With". He sees a lot of people wearing striped pyjamas living on the other side of the fence. He discovers and befriends a boy with the same birthday who wears striped pyjamas. What would the outcome of this friendship be?

Holocaust is probably one of the darkest and gruesome events in history. To write about it, to fictionalize elements of it is no easy feat. This book was an interesting way to bring forward the events as it is written completely from the perspective of a nine-year-old which gives us readers, a gateway to understanding what a child can't. The style of writing, the way it brought out the essence of the story were some of my favourite aspects of this book.

My journey of reading this book has been a bit of a rocky ride. I didn't like it whilst reading. This is purely subjective, but at some points, I felt the book trivialised some events. But as I kept reading on, my feelings towards the story started changing for good. Mind you, I was still a little lukewarm about the book as I accidentally read a spoiler on how the book would end. As I neared the ending, even reading a spoiler didn't deter me from feeling the numbness after finishing this book. It was so heartbreaking and I couldn't think straight for a while.

The past few days have been a rumination period of sorts. Slowly but surely, this book has grown on me and I have started to like it more. Bruno's innocence, his questioning about why some people had to live on the other side of the fence were so pure that it hurt me to read on. Perhaps, it's more daunting because the main characters are children. Bruno and Shmuel's friendship is so sweet and beautiful and somewhere during my disliking this book, I think I've started to love them. It was an intense read, but I would strongly recommend you to read this wonderful book.

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-Vasudha.