John Boyne, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain, Corgi Children’s/Random House Australia, 1 Oct 2015, 224pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780552573542
John Boyne had a big success with his earlier novel The Boy in Striped Pyjamas and here he is again writing about a young boy growing up in Europe during the difficult years before, during and immediately after WWII. When we first meet Pierrot he is living happily in Paris with his German father and French mother. His best friend Anshel, is Jewish, deaf and a born storyteller. Times are tough and things get worse when Pierrot is orphaned. His unknown Aunt Beatrix whisks him away from the orphanage to live with her in Austria. She just happens to be the housekeeper to Adolf Hitler.
When he arrives, Pierrot, now rechristened Pieter, is seven years old. The novel tells the story of how he changes under the influence of the people living at Berchtesgaden. Famous or infamous people appear briefly, Albert Speer, Leni Riefenstahl, Eva Braun, Blondi the dog, Goebbels and Himmler among them. Pieter drinks it all in and believes everything the Fuhrer tells him. As Emma the cook says to him: ‘What happened to you Pierrot? You were such a sweet boy when you first came here. Is it really that easy for the innocent to be corrupted?’ (p 191). He heard it all, saw it all, knew it all and cannot now deny responsibility. The novel is quite bleak and relentless in recounting how a young boy’s need for affection and belonging leads him to accept, without too much questioning, the accepted orthodoxies. He is seduced by power and his privileged position with Hitler. When the inevitable end comes he has to face a new and brutal reality.
Boyne writes well and is always emotionally engaging. He has done his research and created an authentic Europe. It is a brave attempt to show the moral universe of a vulnerable child who is so close to Hitler and who believes in him so strongly. The trouble is that Pieter becomes so horrible that we lose sympathy for him and switch sides, become more sympathetic to all the people he abuses. In the epilogue we see Pierrot/Pieter as a young man trying to come to terms with what he did. The redemptive power of story is a powerful and satisfying conclusion to this novel which I can’t say is an enjoyable read because it is so harrowing, but it does raise many thought provoking issues.
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan
