...Fences like this exist all over the world...We hope you will never encounter one...
Last night I finished reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. It was a book that I decided to read after I read the movie review in some magazine. I do not normally do such a thing. I pick my books carefully not to get bored..;) But this one I'm happy that I read because no book has affected me so much as this one did. The ending ripped out my heart. I lay in bed and I was bawling my eyes out. I couldn't breathe. I was shocked.
The book is set during the second world war and the story is told through the eyes of a nine year old boy called Bruno. He is the son of the commendant of a concentration camp. One day he meets a jewish boy called Shmuel...
The summary:
"If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno. And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you will never have to encounter one."
In the book there is this scene/part of whatever you might call it where Shmuel, the jewish boy, is brought to Bruno's house by an SS-man to work. Bruno finds the boy in the kitchen working. He is happy that his new friend is there. So they talk and he offer the boy some food. Shmuel says that he is too afraid to eat 'cause the SS-man will return soon and he would be punish if he was caught with food. But Bruno offers it anyways and Shmuel, who is too hungry to refuse, takes it. And in that moment the SS-man returns. The SS-man sees the two boys and he goes on the attack. He demands the truth from Bruno if he had talked to Shmuel before, if they had met before etc. The truth was that the two boys where friends. But Bruno falls under the pressure and lies, claiming that they had never met before that day.
The following part is so beautiful and sad and one of the many reasons why I love this book...:
Lieutenant Kotler nodded and seemed satisfied with the answer. Very slowly he turned his head back to look at Shmuel, who wasn't crying any more, merely staring at the floor and looking as if he was trying to convince his soul not to live inside his tiny body any more, but to slip away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it was very far away.
The book will make you think and will make your heart ache...I promise.
The book is turned into a movie. I so hope that it will be released here but I doubt it...
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