But though Bruno aspires to be an explorer when he grows up, his passivity and failure to question or puzzle out what's going on in what he calls "Out-With" diminishes him as a character. What occurs next door is, in fact, unimaginable. The protagonist's naïf perspective is both a strength and weakness of this simple, thought-provoking story. Though the publisher has kept plot details under wraps (e.g., cover copy and promotional materials include no specifics), readers with even a rudimentary knowledge of 20th-century history will figure out, before Bruno does, where he lives and why the title boy he meets in secret at the fence each afternoon is pale, thin and sad. Beyond the tall fence separating his yard from an adjacent compound of crude huts, however, Bruno sees potential playmates, all clad in gray-striped pajamas. He announces that the family-Bruno, mother and his older sister, Gretel-is moving "for the foreseeable future" to somewhere described only as "far away." Their journey unfolds through Bruno's eyes-his poignant initial objection is that the new house is not nearly as nice as the one they vacated. In 1942 Berlin, nine-year-old Bruno returns from school to discover that his father, a high-ranking military officer, has a new job.
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