The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Boyne made the narrative decision to tell the Holocaust from the perspective of a child who does not understand what he sees, and that device — innocence as a filter — is both his greatest virtue and his limitation. The friendship between Bruno and Shmuel works emotionally, though its historical plausibility has been widely questioned. The impact is undeniable, the ending devastating. A book that has brought the subject to young readers who might otherwise never have encountered it, which is worth something.