The Boy at the Top of the Mountain

Author John Boyne
Narrator Alex Wyndham
Publisher Penguin Random House Children's UK
Publish Date 14 May 2020
Run Time 5 hours and 21 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction: Action and adventure stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Historical fiction.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his Aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy household at the top of the German mountains. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler.

Quickly, Pierrot is taken under Hitler's wing, and is thrown into an increasingly dangerous new world: a world of terror, secrets and betrayal, from which he may never be able to escape.

©John Boyne 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

It's impossible to put down: devastating and devastatingly good, one of my top three children's novels of the year so far . . . A difficult story to pull off, but with his perfect pacing, lack of sentimentality and refusal to submit to a neat end, Boyne has won me over - all over again

The Times

A remarkable feat . . . Compelling

Guardian

Disturbingly vivid, utterly readable and appealing to audiences of all ages

The Bookbag

There is a sureness and a simplicity to the writing that is very impressive . . . In The Boy at the Top of the Mountain, Boyne has delivered a powerful account of how one boy was seduced by Hitler and Nazism and paid the price. The final pages, in which he meets the Jewish friend of his boyhood and seeks redemption, are very moving. Younger readers will lament the corruption of Pierrot; older ones will perceive what Boyne is trying to tell us: if this could happen to Pierrot, it could happen to us

Irish Independent

An affecting morality tale . . . It is the chilling portrayal of adolescent corruption and atonement that lingers

Daily Mail

Forceful . . . Reminding us that silence and compromise can foster their own overwhelming guilt

Australian

Exciting and thought-provoking . . . An excellent novel

Star, Malaysia

With his perfect pacing, lack of sentimentality and refusal to submit to a neat end, Boyne has written one of the children's books of the year

The Times

A powerful new novel from the author of the highly acclaimed The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and it is equally atmospheric and disturbing . . . Mesmerizing

Parents in Touch

Another winner

Glasgow Sunday Herald

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