The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 historical fiction novel by the Irish novelist John Boyne, published by David Fickling Books as a 216-page book. The plot concerns a German boy named Bruno whose father is the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp and Bruno's friendship with a Jewish detainee named Shmuel.

Boyne wrote the entire first draft in two and a half days with little sleep, but he has also said that he had been a serious reader of Holocaust literature for years before the idea for the novel occurred to him. That combination, a quickly written narrative resting on long reading, is part of why the book's treatment of its subject has been discussed so much.

As of 2022 the novel had sold more than eleven million copies worldwide and been translated into over fifty-eight languages, which places it among the best-selling books of all time. Critical response has been divided, with praise for the story's emotional force set against objections to its central conceit. The narration keeps Bruno's understanding well behind the reader's, which is how the book handles its subject.