Caging Skies
A Novel
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4.0 • 61 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The internationally bestselling novel, inspiring the major film Jojo Rabbit now nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay
An extraordinary, strikingly original novel that reveals a world of truth and lies both personal and political, Caging Skies is told through the eyes of Johannes Betzler, avid member of the Hitler Youth during World War II. Filled with admiration for the Fu¨hrer and Nazi ideals, he is shocked to discover his parents are hiding a Jewish girl named Elsa behind a false wall in their home in Vienna.
After he’s disfigured in a raid, Johannes focuses more and more on his connection with the girl behind the wall. His initial horror and revulsion turn to interest—and then obsession. After his parents disappear, Johannes is the only one aware of Elsa’s existence in the house, and he alone is responsible for her fate. Drawing strength from his daydreams about Hitler, Johannes plans for the end of the war and what it might mean for him and Elsa.
The inspiration for the major film Jojo Rabbit, directed by Taika Waititi, Caging Skies, sold in twenty-two countries, is a work of rare power; a stylistic and storytelling triumph. Startling, blackly comic, and written in Christine Leunens’s gorgeous, muscular prose, this novel, her US debut, is singular and unforgettable.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Both a thought-provoking historical novel and a compelling portrait of a troubled—and troubling—young boy, Caging Skies is a perfect book club pick. Growing up in World War II Vienna, Johannes is a devoted member of the Hitler Youth who worships the führer. And then, he discovers that his parents are hiding Elsa, a young Jewish girl, from the Gestapo. New Zealand–based author Christine Leunens writes with poetic intensity about horrible things, as Johannes attempts to reconcile his personal beliefs with his parents’ actions and his complicated feelings for Elsa—which become more and more obsessive as time goes on. The novel, which inspired Taika Waititi’s satirical conversation piece of a movie, Jojo Rabbit, raises all kinds of thorny moral questions and refuses to offer easy solutions. You and your friends will be arguing about this book for ages.
Customer Reviews
Not JoJo Rabbit
Don’t read if you’re hoping for this book to follow the movie JoJo Rabbit. The first half of the book and the movie coincide but after that the book turns super depressing. I wouldn’t read if you’re hoping for a good love story or a happy ending either.