All the Broken Places is a gripping historical fiction novel that tells the story of Gretel Fernsby, whose father oversaw one of the Nazi’s worst concentration camps during World War II. Gretel’s brother was Bruno, one of the main characters in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

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I’ll begin with a summary of All the Broken Places.

The story switches between Gretel as a young woman and Gretel as a 91-year-old senior citizen.

Young Gretel fled postwar Germany with her mother when she was twelve. They monitor the news from their new home in Paris, news that includes the execution of her father for the atrocities he oversaw while he was in charge of a Polish death camp.

Although they have new identities, Gretel and her mother are not safe from vigilante justice. This is right after the war, and Parisians are still raw about everything the Nazis did to them, and their families and friends. When some of their neighbors figure out who the two fugitives are, they mete out humiliating punishment.

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Gretel eventually flees Paris for Australia. Her mother is dead, so she makes the trip alone. Just when she starts settling in, she sees a man who used to work for her father, the subject of her girlhood crush. They have a dark, disturbing encounter, and Gretel immediately flees to England. (As a side note, I learned that it wasn’t that uncommon for Nazis and their collaborators to resettle in Australia. With the crush of hosting and processing so many displaced people, it must have been fairly easy to slip through the cracks.)

The younger Gretel is grim and heavy with guilt as she describes her experiences during and after the war. But some of that guilt has faded with time for 91-year-old Gretel. The guilt is still there, but the burden seems to be a bit lighter.

The older Gretel is the widow of a man she met soon after she arrived in England. He was one of the few people who knew her secrets, even her son doesn’t know the truth about her past. Gretel has lived in the same upper end apartment for decades, and she’s become a bit of a nosy neighbor.

When a new family moves into the building, she soon befriends their school-aged son. As she gets to know the family, she can tell something is off about them. The father is overbearing, the mother is perpetually self-medicated, and the son keeps having “accidents” that leave wounds such as a broken arm.

When Gretel’s suspicions are confirmed, she unleashes her own brand of vigilante justice on the man. She saves the mother and the son, and perhaps a little part of her soul.

All the Broken Places is such a powerful story. The characters are well-written, the story line is extremely creative, and the atmosphere frequently pulses with young Gretel’s regret and self-loathing. This is the kind of story that sticks with you for a while. It’s gritty and sometimes brutal but also has a message about atonement and self-acceptance.

The narrator for young Gretel did a nice job reflecting the darkness of her early post-war years, her tone suitably bleak and grim. However, the old Gretel’s reader seemed a bit too chipper and charming. It was a bit jarring whenever the story switched from one to the other, and it was hard to reconcile grim Gretel with her airy older version. But perhaps the difference reflected her character arc.

I think that anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially World War II fiction, will be glad they read All the Broken Places. I highly recommend it.

If you’re a fan of World War II novels, check out my curated book list, 29 Top-rated World War II Novels for Fans of Historical Fiction.