Disappointing

I think the effects of the Holocaust should be handled with more care than they are in this book. Exploring guilt, be it personal or institutional, is a serious matter. The neatness of the plot was thus annoying. Lastly, the details about Sydney in the 1950s were wrong in just about every way. Lazy research!

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Worth the wait!

Loved The Boy in the Striped PJs so much I had to read this and it didn’t disappoint! Gretel’s perspective young and old is brilliantly written!

Engrossing

Well performed and accurately read (following the text is so much better when listening) John has coupled this sequel to his most popular work in a way that grows the reader’s experience.

enthralling

equally enthralling and engaging to the end. Capitvated by the the story of her early life and her current situation. a few gd surprises landed at the end.

Wow - could not put this book down

Live this topic and the historical pictures your works created - so many times I thought I understood and then another twist. Looking forward to your other books

Tedious, overwrought and too melodramatic

Writing about the Holocaust has become a money earner for many authors. I really have no problems with that (all writers need audiences) but in All the Broken Places, which is a follow up to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas I feel the author has overreached and underachieved. The book is broken into three parts, which are all narrated by a woman, Gretel, at different stages of her life; as a teenager; as a young woman in her twenties, and as an old woman in her nineties. The main narrator voice is the elderly woman, who lives in a luxurious apartment in London, having escaped the past and its repercussions. The problem for me is that her section is tedious, mostly judgemental observations about her neighbours, her callow son, and an "invisible" son-in-law (the latter is revealed later). She is not a sociable person but manages to exude an upper class air, perhaps something to do with her coming into money. This is a big gap in the story, just an inheritance it seems. I found her character hard to empathize with even despite the fact that she has regrets about the past and reacts to the nastiness of her London neighbour's bullying, another superficial layer in the pudding that is supposed to connect with the past. Her final act of violent redemption purports to absolve her from the past, when she didn't see or react to the atrocities. An unfortunate cliche.

The other dominant voice comes from Gretel the young girl who is both incredibly worldly and naive about what is happening in the camps, her mind seemingly captured by her pubescent yearnings for a young Nazi. It's unclear when (the actual time) she is speaking and this is another contrivance that the reader has to endure in good faith. Then there is the fill in section of the young woman Gretel who escapes to London via Sydney. There are some quite good parts and Boyne can tell a story well, although this one falls down in his capacity to evoke emotion in the reader and engage with ethical and philosophical issues. Many will disagree I'm sure, and many evidently have been moved. The story has really predictable outcomes, you can see most of it coming, except for the revelation in the final pages that the old lady's neighbour is actually her daughter out of wedlock. But why is this only revealed in the final pages? Contrivances like this get in the way of credibility. Likewise, some of the clever dialogue placed in the mouths of his protagonists doesn't ring true.

A lot of such dialogue would fit well into a clever BBC style TV series but for me it lacks authenticity and creativity. The use of first person is limiting as the reader is always looking through one set of eyes. The two Audible readers make credibility worse; one has a pompous British voice and inflection while the other has an English accent, speaking as the young girl who is German, go figure...

Stunning book

Thought provoking, beautifully written with narration of the highest quality. An absolute must listen/read.

Compelling

Intriguing story, relevant, objective but not without sympathy, wry wit despite the gravity of the theme. Excellently told and written. Clinton Anderson

Devastatingly good. A roller coaster of emotions.

I just did not want this book to end.
It’s exploration of all the feelings surrounding the character’s lives, experiences, and inner workings is extraordinary.
The subject matter is handled honestly and sensitively.
The narration is excellent.

Loved it!

I didn’t want this to end. The narrations were fabulous and there were a couple of things I didn’t see coming. Just fabulous!