Stay Where You Are and Then Leave is a novel with one of the youngest narrators I've read. As I said in my review of Picture Me Gone, it is fascinating to see the world through the eyes of a child. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave begins with Alfie living a relatively calm and normal life, where instead of being preoccupied by the war, his family is his whole world. Alfie perceives the adults in his family and close-knit community to be ancient: old men, who are constantly exhausted and experience poor eyesight, even though they are in their early 20s and 30s, and he struggles to imagine what it must be like to be 21 years old. Just four years on, Alfie understands the world a little better – unfortunately too well, for such a young boy. Alfie knows that his mother is hiding letters from Georgie in her bedroom, so he sneaks in to read them, and is often confused by what he finds. Until one day the letters stop. Alfie is left wondering what has happened to his father. Margie reveals that he is part of a top-secret government mission, but Alfie believes that his mother just won't face the reality of his father's death. But is he really dead? Alfie un chico muy curioso y puro. Le cuesta expresarse pero a la vez sabe el momento exacto en el que debe decir algo o no. Four years later, something awful happens to Alfie’s father, but nobody will tell him what. The story is that he’s on a secret mission, but Alfie doesn’t believe it. By chance, whilst shining shoes at King’s Cross station, he discovers that his father is in hospital near Ipswich. What is the matter with him? What Alfie discovers is both frightening and heartbreaking. But how can he rescue his father away from this terrible place?

London, 1914. It is Alfie Summerfield’s fifth birthday, and news has just broken that fighting has started in France. World War I is about to begin, and Alfie’s world will change forever. His father joins up; his mother struggles to make ends meet; his best friend, Kalena Janáček, and her father, who runs the corner shop, are interned as possible spies – they are Jews from Prague; and Joe Patience, the conscientious objector from over the road, is flung into prison. Pluma del autor súper sencilla y adictiva. Jamás deja que la historia caiga, es super atrapante. Otra cosa positiva que tiene es que no está cargada de descripciones y tiene bastantes diálogos. It's no coincidence that when Alfie's father in Stay Where You Are And Then Leave writes increasingly incoherent letters to his son, these letters remain in the boy's possession even as he's sharing a train carriage to the military hospital with Marian Bancroft, Will's sister from the earlier book, whose own letters from her brother display a developing ambivalence to the motives and manner in which the war is being pursued. The story moves forward four years and Alfie is 9 years-old. Despite the constant assurances that the war would be "over by Christmas" (but WHICH Christmas?), the war drags on. Georgie is still away from his family; Margie has been forced to take a job working long hours as a nurse and Alfie has taken the idea that he is the man of the house seriously and has set up a shoe shine stand in King's Cross Station, secretly giving most of what he earned to his mother. There is a new air of maturity around Alfie and although he is not as joyous as he had been, there are still glimpses of his ever-present inquisitiveness.Boyne was born in Dublin, where he still lives. His first short story was published by the Sunday Tribune and in 1993 was shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award. [2] [3] His B.A degree is from Trinity College Dublin in English in 1993, [4] [5] and he subsequently obtained an MA degree from the University of East Anglia. In 2015 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia. He chaired the jury for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize. [6]

I am currently reading this book and I have to say I am a very keen reader and this doesn't have me gripped! I am sorry to say this but I will look further into John Boynes books.O Conghaile, Pól (23 October 2010). "Wild Child of a Different Stripe". Irish Examiner . Retrieved 27 October 2010.

Otra cosa que no me gustó: los personajes femeninos son pésimos. No porque sean malas personas y estén bien construidas, no. Según mi punto de vista, son horribles a propósito, porque cuando se las pone en la balanza con los personajes masculinos (comentario al pasar: todos dicen algo malo sobre las mujeres en algún momento) pierden. Las mujeres que se quedan en la casa no hacen más que quejarse (como Margie) o marcar de la cobardía ajena (como la abuela de Alfie). A pesar de que ambos géneros no puedan escapar de lo arquetípico que ya señalé, algunos indicios en la narración me llevan a pensar que está decidido de antemano a quién le tengo que ofrecer mi absoluta consideración y a quién no. Los personajes masculinos tienen tiempo para hablar de los traumas y de los padecimientos (me parece perfecto que se resalte esto, pero no "en detrimento de"), sean soldados o no, mientras que a los personajes femeninos les falta vida interior. Margie se desgasta por sostener el hogar, pero más allá de que ella misma cree que es una inútil, no sé nada de ella. Podría decir un par de cosas más pero me las reservo porque no es mi intención polemizar. As a history teacher I really think this book is a bit of a gem. I can see myself happily using it to suggest as extended reading for those eager students who want a bit more out of the World War One unit I currently teach but we haven't got the time for in class. Being aimed at a slightly younger audience also meant it wasn't nasty or graphic in the way war stories for teens can be meaning I can happily recommend it to younger or more sensitive students without worrying about them being traumatised by what they are reading. Stay Where You Are & Then Leave has an extremely slow beginning, in which readers learn a bit about Alfie's past and his connection to his father. It takes way too long for Boyne to introduce the main conflict of the novel, in which Alfie attempts to locate his father, due to the huge emphasis on the various ways the war has damaged Alfie's family. Some younger readers will have trouble pushing through the first half of the novel, but the 2nd half of the novel makes the sluggish beginning feel worthwhile. When WWI changed the lives of not only those who went to war, but also those who stayed behind, what must it have been like for a five year old child whose loving Father is suddenly no longer there.....

Stay Where You Are and Then Leave is beautifully written and enjoyable, but it does not shy away from the harshness of wartime and the effect the war had on the entire country. Alfie is only nine years old, so he escapes battle, but what's most heartbreaking to me is that he has no idea that he'll be forced to experience exactly what Georgie has been through in 21 years time when World War II breaks out. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave is almost a crash course in World War I history, weaving an emotional story with the reality of war (we even get a little cameo from the Prime Minister at the time!) as well as an understanding of cultural attitudes. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave is a wonderful novel that shares a very important part of our history, tough to read at times but incredibly rewarding. To 2014 λόγω της επετείου των 100 χρόνων από τον πρώτο παγκόσμιο πόλεμο, πολλά βιβλία κυκλοφόρησαν σχετικά με αυτό το θέμα.Ένα από αυτά είναι και το «Μείνε εκεί που είσαι και μετά φύγε» που από τη πρώτη στιγμή μου κίνησε το ενδιαφέρον όχι μόνο λόγω της περίληψης αλλά και του πολύ όμορφου εξωφύλλου. Boyne, John (22 February 2018). "John Boyne on Homosexuality and Changing Attitudes". WHSmith . Retrieved 1 February 2019. [...]not because I had any issue with being gay[...]

Lo que nos cuenta. Alfie cumple cinco años el mismo día que el Imperio Austro-Húngaro le declara la guerra a Serbia y empieza oficialmente la Primera Guerra Mundial. Georgie, su padre, pronto se alistará voluntariamente y pensando que la guerra no durará mucho tiempo. Cuatro años después, Alfie no tiene claro que ha sido de su padre, la familia pasa penalidades y el muchacho ha visto cosas que no tiene muy claro cómo interpretar. I felt very sorry for some of the conchies, because, by refusing to fight, they got treated like selfish cowards, even though, for some of them, the reason they didn't want to fight wasn't that they were scared of dying, but that they didn't want to hurt other people. For me, the conchies were also proof that there are different kinds of bravery, and that it's not because you don't throw yourself in front of the gunshots that you're not brave. The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield’s father promised he wouldn’t go away to fight – but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn’t know where his father might be, other than that he’s away on a special, secret mission.McGreevy, Ronan (5 January 2020). "Avoid John Boyne's Holocaust novel, Auschwitz Museum advises". The Irish Times . Retrieved 6 January 2020. Among my most popular books are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky and My Brother’s Name is Jessica. It was the fact that I didn't want to kill anyone. I wasn't put on this earth to murder my fellow man. I'd grown up with violence - can't you see that? I can't bear it.”