The boy in the striped pyjamas

Ez az a könyv, amit olvastam a minap. Matt anyukájától kaptam. Láttam a neten, hogy megcsinálták a filmváltozatot is, sőt magyar szereplők is vannak benne, úgyhogy nem lennék meglepve, ha a magyar mozik is vászonra tűznék (sőt, amennyit manapság kultúrálódom, az is lehet, hogy már egy éve műsoron van...). Az alábbi összefoglaló azonban angolul van, bocsánat.

This is the book I was writing about the other day. I got it from Matthew's mom (thanks, Carol! :) As I saw online, there is a film version of it, too. Thought you may be interested, so here is a summary I found:

"Bruno is a nine-year-old boy growing up in Berlin during World War II. He lives in a five-storey house with servants, his mother and father and 12-year-old sister, Gretel. His father wears a fancy uniform and they have just been visited by a very important personage called the Fury, a pun which adult readers should have no trouble deciphering. As a consequence of this visit, Bruno's father gets a new uniform, his title changes to Commandment and, to Bruno's chagrin, they find themselves moving to a new home at a place called Out-With.

When Bruno gets there he is immediately homesick. He has left his school, his three best friends, his house, his grandparents and the bustling street life of urban Berlin with its cafes, fruit and veg stalls, and Saturday jostle. His new home is smaller, full of soldiers and there is no one to play with. From his bedroom window, however, he notices a town of people dressed in striped pyjamas separated from him by a wire fence. When he asks his father who those people are, he responds that they aren't really people.

Bruno is forbidden to explore but boredom, isolation and sheer curiosity become too much for him. One day, he follows the wire fence cordoning off the area where these people live from his house. He spots a dot in the distance on the other side of the fence and as he gets closer, he sees it's a boy. Excited by the prospect of a friend, Bruno introduces himself. The Jewish boy's name is Shmuel. Almost every day, they meet at the same spot and talk. Eventually, for a variety of reasons, Bruno decides to climb under the fence and explore Shmuel's world."

*If you want to read the book or see the movie, don't read on, but I have to write about the ending, too. The day before Bruno, his sister and their mom are ready to move back to Berlin, as their dad figured this is not a place fit for children; Bruno and Shmuel (who is Polish, by the way) decide that B really should get to know S's world and help him find his Papa, who had disappeared a few days before. Neither of them has any idea of what happens to people who "disappear" in the camp, though S is aware of the soldiers' cruelty - yet he doesn't talk about these to B, whose father is the Chief Commander... Anyway, S gets B a set of striped pyjamas, he changes by the fence and gets in. They explore a little, looking for S's Papa. B is disappointed to find that there are no cafes and fruit stands in the camp, and people don't seem to be happy, even though they have lots of friends around, while he has none on the other side of the fence... After a while, B thinks he should go back to be home for dinner; however, just then, they are all lined up and the soldiers lead them in a march ... to a building to protect them from the rain, B thinks. They grab each other's hands when the doors are slammed shut and the lights are turned off...

After a few days of franctic search for Bruno, his dad finds the pile of clothes and the opening on the fence...