Boyne's

But Boyne's willingness to tackle the darkest subjects makes it all the more unexpected that after two historical novels written for adults, his return to children's fiction should be so full of lightness, surreal absurdity and wit.

'Boy In The Striped Pajamas' Author Talks New Book The Huffington Post News Team 2010

But Boyne's willingness to tackle the darkest subjects makes it all the more unexpected that after two historical novels written for adults, his return to children's fiction should be so full of lightness, surreal absurdity and wit.

'Boy In The Striped Pajamas' Author Talks New Book The Huffington Post News Team 2010

It's really a shame that this is Boyne's best-known work.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne Adam Whitehead 2010

We can treat ourselves to a good cry over Boyne's imaginary little German boy, but we can ignore the gulags, the millions of Year Zero, the million dead in Rwanda, the labour camps in North Korea, and Darfur, which is a genocide according to the US although not one they can be bothered to do much about.

A despicable book amuchmoreexotic 2008

Apparently in John Boyne's reconstruction, Auschwitz-Birkenau inmates had a lunch break where they could wander round and do what they wanted, and the guards didn't machine-gun them if they wandered up to the wire and accepted food parcels from passers-by.

A despicable book amuchmoreexotic 2008

But Boyne's willingness to tackle the darkest subjects makes it all the more unexpected that after two historical novels written for adults, his return to children's fiction should be so full of lightness, surreal absurdity and wit.

'Boy In The Striped Pajamas' Author Talks New Book The Guardian 2010

But Boyne's willingness to tackle the darkest subjects makes it all the more unexpected that after two historical novels written for adults, his return to children's fiction should be so full of lightness, surreal absurdity and wit.

'Boy In The Striped Pajamas' Author Talks New Book The Huffington Post News Team 2010

But Boyne's willingness to tackle the darkest subjects makes it all the more unexpected that after two historical novels written for adults, his return to children's fiction should be so full of lightness, surreal absurdity and wit.

'Boy In The Striped Pajamas' Author Talks New Book The Huffington Post News Team 2010

But Boyne's willingness to tackle the darkest subjects makes it all the more unexpected that after two historical novels written for adults, his return to children's fiction should be so full of lightness, surreal absurdity and wit.

'Boy In The Striped Pajamas' Author Talks New Book The Guardian 2010

In John Boyne's view, the details of the Holocaust aren't important - it's just a theme to be packaged into a nice tear-jerking morality play.

A despicable book amuchmoreexotic 2008