The Irish author of world-famous novel The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas has rejected criticisms that he did not research the Holocaust.
John Boyne, 50, from Dublin, also dismissed claims of a row with the Auschwitz Museum and defended himself against accusations on Twitter of cultural appropriation and vowed not to respond to online trolls.
He was speaking after announcing his book’s sequel, some 16 years after his book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas became a worldwide hit in 2006.
The Auschwitz Museum has previously stated that it does not recommend his book for school history studies.
John defended this, explaining that it is an historical novel, not a teaching tool, and explained: “It is a fable, the characters did not exist.”
He said: “People on the internet claimed that the book is factually inaccurate, but fiction cannot be factually inaccurate.
“It is still selling and still being talked about 16 years later.
“I have been studying the Holocaust since I was 15. There are rumours online that I did no research, but I have been researching this for years.”
He added: “If I have learned anything it is that there is nothing to be gained with arguing with people about the book.”
Of the novel’s forthcoming sequel called All The Broken Places, he said: “The book can stand or fall on its merits, people can read it and like it or dislike it.
“But I will not be engaging in any arguments about it with people online.
“The usual antagonists will be screaming on Twitter, but they will be screaming into a void.
“I am not going to be listening to them.”
He added on RTE Radio 1’s Ryan Tubridy Show: “I have been writing this sequel for 16 years.
“It tells the story a 91-year-old woman and her guilt about the [Second World] war. It features quite a few characters from The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.”
John wrote his first international bestseller after reading the story of Holocaust survivor Primo Levi and studying the Holocaust as a teenager.
Book critics hailed The Boy In Striped Pyjamas novel, which is about the Holocaust, and praised it as one of the most successful books by an Irish writer in modern times.
It sold 11 million copies worldwide, was made into a 2008 movie, and translated into 57 languages, which is more than any other Irish book.
The follow-up called All The Broken Places is due out on September 15.
There is no wartime document to account for the number of innocent lives that were killed in the Holocaust by the Nazis during the Second World War of 1939-45, but historians put the figure at between six million and 11 million people.
