‘An image came into my head of two little boys sitting on either side of a fence’ John Boyne on The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
over 4 years in The guardian
The novelist on how it took him two days, writing through the nights, to complete a first draft of his famous Holocaust novel for younger readers, and how he remains ‘immensely proud’ of itI was 15 years old when a teacher read out a list of books that our class might like to read over the summer break. Eager to immerse myself in adult literature, I pounced on his suggestions. By chance, the first two books I chose were on a similar topic: Elie Wiesel’s Night and Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table.At the time, my awareness of the Holocaust was fairly basic. These two books introduced me to it at a visceral level. I became absorbed in the subject and, over the years that followed, returned to it repeatedly through dozens of novels, biographies, nonfiction and documentaries. Continue reading...
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