All the Broken Places is John Boyne's masterful sequel to his classic bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas taking a character from that novel on a journey to a place she never goes - the past. Through her story Boyne explores the aftermath of the war and the effects of a lifetime of guilt. 1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris shame and fear at their heels not knowing how hard it is to escape your past. Nearly eighty years later Gretel Fernsby lives a life that is a far cry from her traumatic childhood. When a couple moves into the flat below her in her London mansion block it should be nothing more than a momentary inconvenience. However the appearance of their nine-year-old son Henry brings back memories she would rather forget. Faced with a choice between her own safety and his Gretel is taken back to a similar crossroads she encountered long ago. Back then her complicity dishonoured her life but to interfere now could risk revealing the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting.
