Trailer of the film

A sad movie telling a great story.

Spanish Sales Hit 1 Million

This was posted in John Boyne's blog:
"Great news this week from my Spanish publisher, Salamandra. Their edition of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, titled EL NINO CON EL PIJAMA DE RAYAS, has broken through the magic 1 million sales mark. The book has been in the top 3 of the bestseller charts for almost a year now. Big thanks to all the Spanish booksellers and readers who have supported the book so much." Posted on June 8th, 2008 by John Boyne.

Thanks to him for such a brilliant book.

If you want to have a look at the author's blog, click here.
And you can add him to your facebook.

John Boyne's talk and reading

Dublin City Public Libraries and Ireland Literature Exchange presented a series of talks and readings, 'In Other Words . . .Irish Literature in Translation in Your Library' in the Central Library in November 2010.
Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian says: This initiative, organised by Ireland Literature Exchange and Dublin’s Central Library, offers an opportunity to showcase the impressive range of Ireland’s literature in translation. It is particularly apt in the year that Dublin achieved recognition as a UNESCO City of Literature that members of the public can meet with some of the writers who made this designation possible.

John Boyne is reading a section from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which is from the centre of the book.
Click here to read the script.
Click here to listen to the talk

Source: http://www.dublincitypubliclibraries.com/in-other-words

John Boyne's interview with Teenreads.com

John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a profound and thought-provoking novel set during the Holocaust and told from the perspective of a young child who befriends a boy "on the other side of the fence." In this interview with Teenreads.com's contributing writer Alexis Burling, Boyne discusses the parallels between the two children and explains why he chose to leave certain pertinent details deliberately ambiguous. He also elaborates on his main character's naïveté and its implications of society on a larger scale, examines the varying strengths of his female characters, and shares his enthusiasm for historical fiction.

Click here to read the interview.

Source: http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-boyne-john.asp

Author’s Note

The following is an author's note which appears in the American edition of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas (notice the American spelling in the title!)

In April 2004 an image came into my mind of two boys sitting on either side of a fence. I knew they had been taken away from their homes and friends and brought, separately, to a terrible place. Neither of them knew what they were doing there, but I did, and it was the story of these two boys, who I named Bruno and Shmuel, that I wanted to tell.

The issue of writing about the Holocaust is, of course, a contentious matter and any novelist who explores it had better be sure about his or her intentions before setting out. It’s presumptuous to assume that from today’s perspective one can truly understand the horrors of the concentration camps, although it’s the responsibility of the writer to uncover as much emotional truth within that desperate landscape as he possibly can.

Throughout writing and re-writing the novel, I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was through the eyes of a child, and particularly through the eyes of a rather naïve child who couldn’t possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him. For after all, only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.

Fences, such as the one at the heart of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, still exist; it is unlikely that they will ever fully disappear. But whatever reaction you may have to this story, I hope that the voices of Bruno and Shmuel will continue to resonate with you as they have with me. Their lost voices must continue to be heard; their untold stories must continue to be recounted. For they represent the ones who didn’t live to tell their stories themselves.

John Boyne

Dublin, 2006

Book reviews on Glogster

Have a look at these posters book reviews!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (click here)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (click here)
Schmuel (click here)

Enjoy them!

Elegant storytelling with emotional impact.

Read a book review by Ed Wright about The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (click here)

Source: http://www.theage.com.au