"You can’t be sitting there weeping over it yourself," says Irish author John Boyne of his tales, keenly aware that his books about children plunged into adult words tend to be sad and dark.
Speaking to The Guardian, Boyne, who is best known for his novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, answered questions from young fans. He admitted that he did not read sci-fi or horror, but if he was travelling to a desert island he would probably bring books by Charles Dickens and John Irving.
When he was growing up, Boyne's parents brought him to the library every Wednesday, which set him on course for life as a committed reader and writer. He was delighted to be able to take three books on each visit.
Boyne’s new novel, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain, has just been published by Doubleday Children's Books. His protagonist is named Pierrot and becomes an orphan, and must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his Aunt Beatrix. She is a servant in a wealthy household at the top of the German mountains.
However, the year is is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching. This is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler. Pierrot is taken under Hitler's wing, and thrown into an increasingly dangerous new world: a world of terror, secrets and betrayal, from which he may never be able to escape.
Aside from the desert island books, Boyne assured his young questioner that he would also have to take a pen and paper to the island, “ so I could write a story of my own.”
