Video: John Boyne reads from his new book

When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his Aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy household at the top of the German mountains. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler.

Intensely haunting and emotionally devastating, Boyne’s delicate fable takes a child’s eye view of twentieth century history and finds resonances lacking from many adult accounts. Written in clear, subtle prose The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a stunningly realised work with real narrative power.