John Boyne

John Boyne (born 30 April 1971) is an Irish novelist and writer. He is the author of sixteen novels for adults, six novels for younger readers, two novellas, and one collection of short stories. Boyne's historical novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006) received critical acclaim and was adapted into a 2008 drama film of the same name. As of 2022, the book has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time, and has also been translated into over 58 languages. A sequel, titled All the Broken Places, was published in 2022.

Boyne was born in Dublin, Ireland, where he still lives. His first short story was published by the Sunday Tribune and in 1993 was shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award.^{[citation needed]}

Boyne was educated at Terenure College, a Carmelite-run secondary school in Dublin. He read English at Trinity College Dublin, graduating BA in 1993. He subsequently obtained an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1995 where he studied under Malcolm Bradbury. In 2015 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by UEA.

He chaired the jury for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Boyne is gay, and has spoken about the difficulties he encountered growing up gay in Catholic Ireland. He has spoken of suffering physical and sexual abuse at Terenure College as a student.

He regards John Banville as "the world's greatest living writer".

In May 2024, Boyne was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was published in 2006. The book has sold over seven million copies worldwide. A Heyday/Miramax film adaptation, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was shot in Budapest in mid-2007 and released in late 2008. Directed by Mark Herman, the film stars Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Rupert Friend and Sheila Hancock. In January 2020, the book was cited by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, in a set of back and forth tweets between the museum and the author, as a book that should be avoided by those promoting accurate understanding of the Holocaust. In response, Boyne suggested that the museum's criticism contained inaccurate information.