Told from 3rd person limited point of view of a 9 year old German boy during WWII, this book was a fast read, but a fairly devastating one. The text is deceptively simple, not written in a dramatic or emotional style. The German boy is living a privileged life, completely naive and innocent about what could possibly be going on behind his house with all those people wearing striped pajamas on the other side of the fence. Sometimes it frustrated me, his inability to grasp even a hint of the torment of people in the camp...I found myself thinking, "Really? You don't notice that they are all skeletal because they are starving?!" I think a 9 year old would be better able to draw conclusions, although maybe he was just that self-involved as a character or truly had no frame of reference for that kind of suffering if he'd been kept very sheltered. But I felt that in the end, the innocent obliviousness of the young German boy about the horrors in his own backyard makes the story even more powerful. The last line has continued to resonate with me. The author's point is not subtle, but I'm okay with that. I don't recommend this if you are struggling with depression, but I'm glad I read it.