Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

By John Boyne

From the author of the phenomenally bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas comes an unforgettable story of a boy's life changed by war, published to coincide with World War One's centenary.
     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.
     Then, while shining shoes at King's Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father's name -- on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. Bewildered and confused, Alfie realises his father is in a hospital close by -- a hospital treating soldiers with an unusual condition. Alfie is determined to rescue his father from this strange, unnerving place...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Mar 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9780385681407

John Boyne

John Boyne is the author of Crippen, The Thief of Time, Next of Kin, and the New York Times and internationally bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Boyne won two Irish Book Awards (the People’s Choice and the Children’s) for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was made into a Miramax feature film, and his novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Ireland's Sunday Business Post named him one of the forty people under forty in Ireland "likely to be the movers and shakers who will define the country's culture, politics, style and economics in 2005 and beyond." Crippen was nominated for the Sunday Independent Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award. He lives with his partner in Dublin.

Reviews for Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

[readerbynight · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book touched a chord with me. Although it takes place in World War I, I felt memories return to me at the same age as Alfie; mine from World War II. John Boyne is spot on with this story and has a fantastic ability to recreate this time period and the horrors that went with it, without losing sight of his youthful audience. This book is suggested for the 9 to 12 year range, but I believe it would be interesting to a wider range.Alfie is an only child and has just had his fifth birthday as the story begins. This is his story, but also the story of all London where suddenly all the Dads are off to war, Mothers off to work and/or taking in work and children left alone. Alfie's best friend Kalena Janacek and her father have been sent away to the Isle of Wight to an internment camp, his Dad Georgie is at war and his Dad's best friend Joe as a conscientious objector, a conchie as they call him, is dragged off to jail and badly beaten. All life as he knew it is changed, and changed him with it.Alfie decides he should do his part, too, so he takes Mr. Janacek's shoeshine kit and starts working at the train station, skipping school three days a week. This is a tale of survival, constant fear and worry, death, innovation and love of family. When letters no longer come from Georgie, Alfie's father, he believes the worst. His mother tries to ease his fears by telling him he can't write because he is on a secret mission but Alfie doesn't believe her.Chance is a strange thing. While Alfie, now nine, is shining the shoes of a well-dressed man at the station, a wind happens to gust through the station and catch all the papers the man is holding. Alfie rushes to collect them all and chances to see his father listed as a patient at a hospital in England. From this point on the story veers as Alfie plots to see his father. This story is very well-written, compelling and compassionate, as much as a coming of age story. Alfie's complicated plans are admirable if ill-conceived. In a four year period, many things can change, and especially with children, who always seem to grow up too soon, but during war often become grown up through necessity as Alfie did. With love, though, anything is possible.

[debbiemccauley-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On his fifth birthday Alfie Summerfield discovers that his father is going off to war and will return when the war is over, before Christmas - but which Christmas? Four years pass and the letters have stopped. His mother explains that his father is on a secret mission, but Alfie believes he is dead. Alfie has been wagging school and working as shoeshine boy at King's Cross Station to help the family make ends meet, whilst his mother works hard as a nurse and takes in other people's washing. Whilst shining the shoes of a doctor, Alfie discovers that his father might just be in a nearby hospital and determines to find him and bring him home.Alfie is an endearing character and the war has provided many new challenges and issues for him to think about. The book deals with the issue of shell shock, war wounds, conscientious objectors and how foreigners (and women) in England were treated at the time. Really well done, a great story from the home front.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reviewed from a NetGalley edition.Excellent World War I fiction book for middle school and young adult readers. The book chronicles the life of Alfie, 5 when the story begins and 13 at the conclusion. Primarily the reader witnesses through Alfie, the way life was for families when fathers enlisted in the Army after the outbreak of WW1. Alfie's mother becomes a nurse and Alfie begins a shoe shine business to help her out. Alfie's dad keeps the family posted on the war and his increasing horror at what is going on around him in the trenches. Until the letters cease to arrive, and Alfie wants to find out why.Included in the book are stories of other people on the street where Alfie lives; the 'conchie' , and the family with roots in Prague. In vivid detail, the reader experiences what happened to those people and to the men who came home from the war damaged not in body but in mind, those with the diagnosis, shell shocked.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A powerful affecting story about the impact of war on a young boy and his parents.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Narrated by Euan Morton. Morton leavens this story with a childlike touch, just right for young Alfie's voice and perspective. John Boyne has a way of zeroing in on the emotional state of a child like Alfie, all innocence and naivete but so sure and confident of where he stands. Nicely done all around.

[susan.macura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of 5-year-old Alfie and what happened to his father Georgie when he fought in WW I. While he was not physically hurt on the battlefield, he ended up suffering from “shock syndrome,” today known better as PTSD. Alfie describes how difficult life was back home in England while his dad was gone for those four years, as well as how he found his father and tried to help him. It is a great view of an important historical event, those involved in it from families back home to conscientious objectors, that helps everyone understand the other’s point of view while being historically accurate. This would be a great fictional accompaniment to studying WW I in schools.

[susiesharp_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is such a powerful story, set in WWI before we had a name for PTSD or Shell Shock this book takes you to a hospital with one doctor who is trying to get people to realize this is an actual condition not men just being cowardly. But how we get to that hospital is a heartbreaking yet uplifting story told through the eyes of 9 year old Alfie who is in search of his father Georgie.Alfie is a precocious 9 year old who misses his father it has been 4 years since he went off to war and Alfie’s mother won’t let him see the letters he is writing but Alfie finds a way but notices there hasn’t been a letter in a long time, his mother tells him his dad is on a secret mission but Alfie is not sure he believes that. Alfie has been helping out by shining shoes at Kings Cross Station ( unbeknownst to his mother) and one day a man drops some papers and as Alfie helps him pick them up he sees his dads name and the name of a hospital so he sets off to find his dad.This story is at times heartbreaking, uplifting and powerful, seeing it through Alfie’s eyes really brings home the separation of war, the not knowing if your parent is alive or well and how the parent left behind wants to protect their child from knowing the gory details of war but that leaves Alfie to think his father is dead. When Alfie does find his father it will break your heart and Alfie’s innocence in thinking if he just comes home he will be okay leads to circumstances that make Alfie have to confront just what shell shock is and how the war affected his father.Euan Morton narrates this book with skill, his narration of Alfie is spot on and you feel every emotion he feels. Every character has a voice and the parts with the banging how Morton brings Georgie’s emotion to the forefront are amazing. Highly recommend this on audio!The author does a great job at making you feel everything Alfie feels the fear, the trepidation, the confusion all written so beautifully. 4 ½ StarsI received this book from netgally but ended up listening to the audio version and am so glad I did!

[acargile-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

John Boyne also wrote The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which has been very popular over the last few years. I find this novel more up-lifting. It would be considered historical fiction.Alfie Summerfield remembers his fifth birthday because that’s when the fighting began: July 28, 1914. World War I breaks out and no one is able to come to his birthday party. Everyone believes the war will be over by Christmas. Alfie’s mother is against joining, but his father, Georgie, immediately signs up. He leaves and the war rages on for over four more years.In the four and one-half years of the war, life is difficult. Alfie’s mom works constantly just to barely pay the rent and food is very scarce. Alfie chooses to attend school less than half the time in order to make money shining shoes at the train station. His best friend, Kalena Janacek, and her father are detained by the government because the government believes them to be “German” even though they are from Prague. They are sent to an internment camp for the entire war. Alfie is very much on his own with his dad gone, his mom working, and his best friend away. Alfie believes his father has died and then discovers the truth. Because no one tells him the truth, he must take matters into his own hands, which could offer disastrous or healing results. I liked this book and think many of you will as well. It’s a realistic look at people who had no power during the war yet have to live with the consequences of others’ biases and political choices. The characters are “stock,” but Alfie’s innocence in the midst of war makes him an engaging character whom you hope finds family and happy birthdays again.