This post contains spoilers.

Are you a member of a book club? If so, do you meet virtually or in-person?

I attend a book club run by Pangur Bán Bookshop in conjunction with Craoibhín Ballina. We meet in-person once a month.

At our last meeting we talked about All the Broken Places by John Boyne. All The Broken Places is the sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. If you’ve read the book, I’d love for you to share your opinion in the comment box below.

The blurb:

Gretel Fernsby is a quiet woman leading a quiet life. She doesn’t talk about her escape from Germany seventy years ago or the dark post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn’t talk about her father, the commandant of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps.

But when a young family moves into the apartment below her, Gretel can’t help but befriend their little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back painful memories. One night, she witnesses a violent argument between his parents, which threatens to disturb her hard-won peace.

For the second time in her life, Gretel is given the chance to save a young boy. To do so would allay her guilt, grief and remorse, but it will also force her to reveal her true identity.

Will she make a different choice this time, whatever the cost to herself?

The story is told from Gretel’s point of view switching between timelines in alternating chapters; 1946 when Gretel is twelve years old, and nearly eighty years later when she is ninety one.

When Gretel and her mother escaped from Germany after the war ended, they foolish believed that they could live secret lives in France under new identities. It wasn’t long before their true identities were discovered, and they were subjected to a vicious and humiliating assault, leaving them emotionally wounded. The harsh reality of life as fugitive Nazis set in, and they knew life wasn’t going to be easy.  

Gretel’s mother went downhill after the shocking experience in France but Gretel grew a thick skin and even tried life in Australia before eventually settling in London with her husband.

She now lives a quiet life in an apartment block in London, even more so since she becomes a widow and her only son moves out, visiting only occasionally. She interacts with as few people as possible, except for an elderly lady who lives across the hall.

When a couple with a nine year old son move into the apartment below Gretel’s, she is faced with a new dilemma. Save Henry from his abusive father and risk exposing who she really is, or carry on lying about her shameful past and let Henry and his mother carry on living in terror.  

Here’s what the book club members had to say about All The Broken Places.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the story and were in agreement that the main theme is guilt. A couple of people didn’t like the way the timelines switched from past to present.

Gretel is a strong woman who might come across as being selfish and hard. When asked whether we sympathised with her, the opinions were mixed. I think readers understood her more than sympathised with her.

Gretel had known no other life as a child. She was easily influenced by her parents and those around her. She looked up to her father and even though initially she didn’t know what was going on behind the fence, she knew something was wrong.

She went on the run with her mother (a firm Nazi supporter) because there didn’t seem to be any other choice. To give herself and her mother up to the Nazi hunters would possibly mean prison for her mother and God knows what kind of a life for Gretel herself.

Some readers were critical of Gretel’s cold nature towards her son and sometimes towards her elderly neighbour. Was it maybe a coping mechanism? She hadn’t learned how to be close to people. She had only learned how to push people away. She felt responsible for her brother’s death all those years ago (Bruno in The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas). She had spent her whole life in hiding and keeping people at a distance. She admits that she wasn’t a good mother. Gretel had experienced a lot of trauma in her life. So is it any wonder she lacked warmth?

After the death of her mother, why did Gretel continue to live a secret life? Why didn’t she come clean about her past?

It was suggested that as time went on it became more difficult to expose such a shameful part of your life. Gretel also experienced rejection from a Jewish boyfriend during her time in Australia when she confessed her secrets to him. He was disgusted by her, making it even more difficult for her to be honest to people about her past.

Gretel’s son and his wife would also suffer negative consequences if her past were revealed.

However, she did kidnap a child at one point and had thoughts of harming him. There is also a scene in the book where Gretel tried on Hitler’s glasses and it made her feel powerful. These scene makes us wonder; is she more like her father than she’d care to admit?

The abused wife Madeleine.

Was Madeleine a good mother? Why didn’t she just leave her husband Alex Darcy-Witt?

The readers were able to relate to and sympathize with Madeleine’s struggles, feeling a strong sense of empathy and understanding towards her.

The topic of domestic abuse was explored. Alex is a powerful man who knows people in high places and the reality is that women like Madeleine exist. Leaving is not easy, even when a child is at risk. It seems that Madeleine was in some way highly influenced by her husband’s opinion and believed that Henry needed discipline. Alex has her at a point where she has no confidence in herself. She neglects her health, her personal hygiene and she neglects Henry. She fears her husband and the potential consequences for her and Henry if she were to leave.

In the end, Gretel cold-heartedly finds a way of saving Madeleine and Henry from Alex Darcy-Witt even though she knows she will pay a high price for it. Although she has resigned herself to her destiny, she ultimately finds redemption by ridding the world of Alex Darcy-Witt but most of all by saving Henry, something she had failed to do for her brother, and this gives her a sense of closure.

But did she do the right thing? Perhaps Gretel is more like her father after all.

One of our book club members is a German woman and she told us a little bit about herself. Even though she was born AFTER World War 11, she had been occasionally made to feel guilty about her country’s past. A past that she wasn’t even educated on. I was surprised to learn from this woman that German history was not being taught in schools and it wasn’t a subject that was discussed in the home either. This was because of the shame of things that happened during the war, in particular the holocaust. Through her own research as an adult she finally learned of the history of her own country and why an American once called her a Nazi.

The perspective of ancestral families on both sides of the war and the impact it has on them is not often explored.

An interesting question was raised towards the end of our discussion. Why are so many people fascinated with stories of the war and in particular, the holocaust?

John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. The winner of four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year, he is the author of fourteen novels for adults, six for younger readers and a collection of short stories. The international bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was made into a Miramax feature film and has sold more than eleven million copies worldwide. His novels are published in 58 languages. He lives in Dublin. www.johnboyne.com.

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