All the Broken Places 5 stars > Likes and Comments

This is not a feel-good novel, but I haven’t found Boyne’s other books to be feel-good either. But I’ve mostly enjoyed them because I think his writing is so excellent. The characters are complex, plots are compelling, pacing is just right, and they’re always about important and deep themes. The exception, I think, was The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which I truly disliked and gave a one-star rating. Now I may have to reread the book – more about that coming. In All the Broken Places, the main character, Gretel, is a ninety-one year old widow, mother of one son, and she carries a boatload of guilt and remorse over the fact that her father was in charge of Auschwitz. Gretel lost her brother there, her father was hanged after the war ended, and she and her mother escaped from there to live out their lives in various places under false names. Gretel moves from Poland to France, then Australia, and finally settles in London, always worrying that she’ll be exposed by Nazi-hunters. She’s a distant, forbidding, cold woman, yet I had to admire her determination to make moral choices. This determination, of course, is exactly why she is tortured by guilt. She knew what was going on at Auschwitz and she loved her parents. Some people think that makes her guilty of the crimes there and she believes it herself. But she was just a twelve-year-old girl; it’s not clear what she could have done and to me, that’s part of what gives the book depth. There’s a lot to think about. Gretel’s brother, it turns out, was the main character in the Striped Pyjama book; realizing this gave me a real jolt and caused me to wonder if I’d given that book an unfair review. Gretel does, late in life find the courage to do something that she feels helps makes amends. As noted, this is not a feel-good novel and I can understand why it’ll be too dark to appeal to everyone. But I think Boyne’s writing is superb.