All The Broken Places

“All The Broken Places” is a book written by John Boyne. A book that I picked randomly because I thought the cover was vintage, not realizing it would flip the course of my life.
The title of the book is inspired by World War Two which was going on from 1939 to 1945. A girl named Gretel Fernshy and her mother escaped Germany a few months after the war ended in Germany while escaping by train to be specific. She saw how miserable, and heartbroken the people were on her way to London because of this scenario.
The title John Boyne created was “All the Broken Places”, a title which will remain as a burden deep down in history. As a reader, this is one of the books that has made me feel some kind of unfamiliar emotions.
Ninety-one-year-old, Gretel suddenly must retrace the steps back to her dark past and confront it. Not to mention that she must remind herself that it’s never too late to find redemption in the present.

Some English words you may find in this book are,

1. Claustrophobic – An intense fear or anxiety about an object or situation.
2. Bewilderment – A feeling of being perplexed and confused.
3. Jungmedlbund – It was a Hitler youth for girls between the ages of 10- 13. [ to be good housewives]
4. Rudimentary – very imperfectly developed or represented only by a small part compared to a full development.
5. Hazy – the atmosphere covered by some smoke or fine dust.
6. Scandal – an action or event mortally or legally wrong that causes public outrage.
7. Contraption – A machine or device that appears unnecessary or complicated and is often made badly or unsafe.
8. Extravagant – More expensive than necessary or reasonable.
9. Naivete – The quality or state of being native.
10. Kristallnacht – an event that occurred on November 9th and 10th in which Hitler’s nazis encouraged to riot against Jews.

Reviewed by: Vinugi Herath, Yasodara Vidyalaya, Colombo.