tells the story of
Bruno,
a German boy whose father is a senior commander in Hitler's military. Bruno calls
Hitler,
"the Fury," as he cannot pronounce fuhrer. Bruno befriends Shmuel, a
boy the same age
as Bruno. with co-incidentally the same birthday, but Shmuel
lives in the compound at
"Out-With," Bruno's name for what is apparently the
concentration camp, Auschwitz,
from the Second World War. The boys can only
talk across the fence that divides their
worlds.
Bruno is
ironically jealous of Shmuel, because Bruno perceives
Shmuel's world as so
much more exciting as Shmuel gets "to have dozens of friends and are
probably playing for hours every day." Bruno is intrigued by the "pajamas"
that
everybody wears in the camp and his strange friendship because he and
Shmuel never get to
explore or play, only talk. After his hair is cut due to
a problem with lice, he looks very
similar to his friend, "only
fatter."
When Bruno's father realizes
that Bruno has been
"watching" the people in the pajamas, he decides it is time for
his family to
return to Berlin and, even though it is what Bruno wanted, he is sad to think
that
he will miss his friend. When Shmuel brings him some pajamas, he is
excited to think that he can
wear the "right" clothes which is what all good
explorers do and he can help Shmuel
look for his father who is missing. Bruno
is confused by what he finds when he goes through the
fence to the "other"
side and disappointed that they cannot find Shmuel's
father.
Bruno never understands the extent of what is happening and, even
when he and his "best friend for life" stand together in a room, he cannot
anticipate
what will happen next. Bruno is never heard of again and the
reader is able to discern what
happened. Bruno's father does come to the
realization of what must have happened when his son's
clothes are
found.
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