This book is a well-meaning failure that could be thus summarized:

Autistic German boy -son of Nazi officer- befriends Polish Jew boy -also suffering from autism- at concentration camp.

Bruno doesn't know that his father is in the army and his country at war. Schmuel doesn't realize he is a prisoner, but survives in the camp for one year with nothing to do all day long. Give me a break!

If you see the homonymous film after reading the book, you'll notice the significant changes continuously introduced in the script to make the story (just barely) plausible.

Don't lose your time reading this utter nonsense.

Go get a DVD of Roberto Benini's "Life is Beautiful" instead. It will make you laugh and cry at the same time with a story of love and desperate wit.

Benini's wonderful fable ultimately treats the Holocaust in a dignified manner -- while Boyne's novella is stripped of all dignity.