All the Broken Places .jpeg
All the Broken Places .jpeg

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

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"You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel." —John Irving, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Garp

"Exceptional, layered and compelling…This book moves like a freight train." —Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love

From the New York Times bestselling author John Boyne, a devastating, beautiful story about a woman who must confront the sins of her own terrible past, and a present in which it is never too late for bravery

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She lives a quiet, comfortable life, despite her deeply disturbing, dark past. She doesn't talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age 12. She doesn't talk about the grim post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich's most notorious extermination camps.

Then, a new family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can't help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a disturbing, violent argument between Henry's beautiful mother and his arrogant father, one that threatens Gretel's hard-won, self-contained existence.

All The Broken Places moves back and forth in time between Gretel's girlhood in Germany to present-day London as a woman whose life has been haunted by the past. Now, Gretel faces a similar crossroads to one she encountered long ago. Back then, she denied her own complicity, but now, faced with a chance to interrogate her guilt, grief and remorse, she can choose to save a young boy. If she does, she will be forced to reveal the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting. This time, she can make a different choice than before—whatever the cost to herself….

"You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel." —John Irving, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Garp

"Exceptional, layered and compelling…This book moves like a freight train." —Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love

From the New York Times bestselling author John Boyne, a devastating, beautiful story about a woman who must confront the sins of her own terrible past, and a present in which it is never too late for bravery

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She lives a quiet, comfortable life, despite her deeply disturbing, dark past. She doesn't talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age 12. She doesn't talk about the grim post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich's most notorious extermination camps.

Then, a new family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can't help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a disturbing, violent argument between Henry's beautiful mother and his arrogant father, one that threatens Gretel's hard-won, self-contained existence.

All The Broken Places moves back and forth in time between Gretel's girlhood in Germany to present-day London as a woman whose life has been haunted by the past. Now, Gretel faces a similar crossroads to one she encountered long ago. Back then, she denied her own complicity, but now, faced with a chance to interrogate her guilt, grief and remorse, she can choose to save a young boy. If she does, she will be forced to reveal the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting. This time, she can make a different choice than before—whatever the cost to herself….

  • Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books

    Title: All the Broken Places

    Author: John Boyne

    On Sale Date: November 29, 2022

    ISBN 13: 978-0-593-65306-7

    ISBN 10: 0593653068

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $28.00

    BISAC: Fiction / World War II; Fiction / Literary Fiction

    Page Count: 400

    Dimensions: 9.29 x 6.29 x 1.34 in

    Weight: 2.31 lb

  • John Boyne was born in Dublin in 1971. He is the author of eighteen novels for adults, six for younger readers, a picture book, and a collection of short stories, and the winner of four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year. His novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was adapted into a Miramax feature film and has sold more than eleven million copies worldwide; his work is published in sixty languages.

  • Critics and fellow bestselling authors are calling it powerful, ferocious, and compelling:

    • “You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel.” — John Irving, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Garp

    • “Exceptional, layered and compelling…This book moves like a freight train.” — Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love

    • “Complex. Ferocious. Beautiful and hard. I could not put this novel down.” — Ariel Lawhon, New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène

    • “A powerful novel about secrets and atonement after Auschwitz…a defence of literature's need to shine a light on the darkest aspects of human nature.” — The Guardian

This book is for you if

  • You loved The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and want to see John Boyne turn his eye on the people who looked away.

  • You're drawn to novels that ask what an ordinary, elderly neighbor might be hiding about her past.

  • You want a story that moves between 1940s Germany and present-day London without ever losing its grip.

  • You appreciate a slow-reveal mystery anchored by one of fiction's most complicated narrators.

  • You want a page-turner that's also a serious reckoning with guilt, complicity, and the chance to choose differently.

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