From Book to Movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” Movie Screening & Book Discussion at GN Library

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a 2006 historical fiction novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. 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.

The book was made into a movie in 2028, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008 PG-13 1 hr. 34 mins). During World War II, 8-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) and his family leave Berlin to take up residence near the concentration camp where his father (David Thewlis) has just become commandant. Unhappy and lonely, he wanders out behind his house one day and finds Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a Jewish boy of his age. Though the barbed-wire fence of the camp separates them, the boys begin a forbidden friendship, oblivious to the real nature of their surroundings.

We are having a book and film discussion comparing the book by Boyne and the film by Mark Herman. The movie screening will be at the Great Neck Library, 159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck, on Wednesday, May 6, at 2:00 p.m., and the book discussion will be at 7:00 p.m. Registration is not required; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please call Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.