In the case of ‘Gretta’, her father was the commandant of Auschwitz and when she leaves the camp, instead of telling the authorities as much information as she could about the camps, about what was there, she chooses freedom, and that’s why she has to feel scared, she has to feel, I think, a lifetime of guilt.
—You published The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in 2006 and All the Broken Pieces came out in January 2023. Seventeen years have passed. How much have you changed as a writer and as a person during all this time?
—Oh, quite a bit. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was my fourth book. All the Broken Pieces is my 20th novel. I was quite young when I wrote the first one and I think there’s a naivety in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas that reflects on me as a writer. But I was 50 when I wrote the sequel, so I’m more experienced in writing novels, I’m more experienced in life, in novel structure, characters, development. I like to think I’m getting better with each book.
How did John Boyne deal with the success of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’?
—Let’s talk a little about the success of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, because obviously people knew about your books, but when the film came out, people who had never read a novel in their lives knew about the story, what was this like for you?
—It was exciting, to be honest. The first books I published hadn’t done very well and then I had this global phenomenon, I travelled around the world, went to literary festivals, did interviews, the press conference for the film. It was a fantastic time in my life, to be honest.
—Did you like the movie?
—Yes, I think it’s a very solid film, it’s a good adaptation of my book.
—You always try to tell the missing part of history. For example, in books about World War II, they usually tell the story of the victims of the Holocaust, but you decided to tell the story from the eyes of a child in a Nazi family and also with ‘The House of Special Purpose’, where you told the Romanovs’ version, why are you so interested in portraying these kinds of moments?
—I think one of the jobs of novelists is to tell the stories that haven’t been told. When it comes to World War II novels, what I felt was that it would be bad for me to put myself in the field as a narrator. I felt that Bruno was the person who had the right voice to speak and ask questions, which is what we do when we read history, when we try to understand the subject. I juxtapose the power of youth and innocence so that I can see history in a very fresh way. It’s like taking a historical event and having a new vision.
—Many of your characters tend to be rejected or lonely, almost outside their own universe. Why is this?
— Yes, that’s true. Maybe because when I was young I was very introverted, I didn’t have much confidence. I got lost in books. I was at home and in the library. That way I wasn’t alone. I was a quiet kid, very shy, and I think I draw a lot of those experiences in terms of the characters I write.
John Boyne describes himself as a shy young man who mutated into an author “who spends a lot of time alone” in his room, writing. However, in his own words, “the good part is coming to events like the one in Lima and being able to talk to readers.”
We are sure that your multitudinous event in the LIMA 2024 FIL He fulfilled all his expectations and moved more than one fan who came to see him and help him, for a few moments, feel less lonely.
