John Boyne books

Anthologies

Children’s

Collections

Elements Reading Order

John Boyne Children’s

John Boyne Standalone Novels Reading Order

Open Door 6 Reading Order

Short Stories/Novellas

John Boyne is an Irish author who has published novels for both adult and younger readers since 2000. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and later completed a creative writing course at the University of East Anglia. His second novel for younger readers, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, became an international bestseller when it was published in 2006 and remains one of the most widely read novels about the Second World War.

His adult fiction covers a wide range of historical periods and settings. Crippen (2004) is a fictionalized account of the famous murder case, while The House of Special Purpose (2009) follows a guard in the court of Tsar Nicholas II. The Absolutist (2011) is set during the First World War, and A History of Loneliness (2014) looks at the Catholic Church in Ireland over several decades. The Heart’s Invisible Furies (2017), which follows one man’s life in Ireland from the 1940s to the present day, received widespread critical praise and is often considered his finest adult novel.

Boyne has also written several books for children, including Noah Barleywater Runs Away and Stay Where You Are and Then Leave. More recently, he began the Elements series with Water (2023), followed by Earth and Fire in 2024. He continues to publish regularly, with new titles appearing almost every year since his debut.