John Boyne: The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

Biography

            John Boyne was born in Dublin, Ireland on April 30, 1971. John had always told himself that he wanted to be a writer when he grew up. As a young boy, John Boyne quotes, “When I was a child, I wrote hundreds of stories and bound them up together like books, writing my name on the spine and putting them on the bookshelves in my bedroom.” At the age of 10, Boyne was in the hospital for a week for an operation and his mother handed his a copy of the book “The magician’s nephew” by C. S. Lewis to keep him entertained. By the time he had recovered, he had finished all seven of the Narnia books. Those books had a big effect on Boyne because he liked the idea of adventure stories especially ones have children like him. Boyne also read a book “The Sliver Sword” by Ian Serailler which later on in his life inspired him to write his famous novel “The Boy in the stripped pajamas” which was made into an award-winning Miramax film.

            When John Boyne was in high school, he discovered Charles Dickens and grew to be quiet fund of his novels. It changed him both as a reader and a writer. He specifically loved orphan novels because they began with a young boy left alone in the world and left to rely on no one but himself. John Boyne was also a fan of how Dickens had great talent in finishing his chapters with a cliff-hanger, forcing the reader to wait no longer to find out what happened next. Boyne always tried to use Dickens method.

            As a young adult in college, john Boyne studied English Literature at Trinity College and was a student on the MA course in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He started writing short stories. In fact, his first story, “the entertainments Jar” was on a waiting list for the Hennessy Literary Award in Ireland. He wrote about 70 short stories since then. Boyne starting teaching creative writing at the Irish Writer’s Centre and the University of East Anglia. Because of his great efforts, he was awarded the Writing Fellowship of 2005. Though, he published his first novel in 2000 ,”The Thief of time.” He currently is living in Dublin where he is working on his latest novel “NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY” which will be published on October 2010 for younger readers.

 Book List:

-The Thief of Time (2000)
-The Congress of Rough Riders (2001)
-Crippen (2004)
-Next of Kin (2006)
-The Boy IN The Stripped Pajamas (2006)
-Mutiny On The Bounty (2008)
-The House Of Special Purpose (2009)
- Noah Barley Water Runs (Coming Soon- October 2010)

His novels were published in 42 different languages.