
The Boy at the Top of the Mountain
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Narrated by:
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Alex Wyndham
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By:
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John Boyne
About this listen
The Boy at the Top of the Mountain by John Boyne, the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, is another extraordinary historical fiction about World War II and innocence in the face of evil.
When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy Austrian household. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler.
Pierrot is quickly taken under Hitler's wing and thrown into an increasingly dangerous new world: a world of terror, secrets, and betrayal from which he may never be able to escape.
This title has Common Core connections.
"Boyne’s (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, 2006) story is unarguably a powerful one with an often visceral impact."—Booklist
A compelling account of the attractions of power, the malleability of youth and the terrible pain of a life filled with regret."—The Guardian
©2016 John Boyne (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Gary Paulsen
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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His name is synonymous with high-stakes wilderness survival stories. Now, beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age 13, he may never have become a reader.
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loving it...
- By LAF on 04-26-21
By: Gary Paulsen
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A Ladder to the Sky
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant, Richard Cordery, Nina Sosanya, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent - but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful - but desperately lonely - older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war.
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This is a very smart book
- By Johnnie Terry on 01-05-19
By: John Boyne
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The House of Special Purpose
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to Saint Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the tzar, in the early twentieth century - a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution.
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Best book I have read in years!
- By Claudia Valeria Rion on 02-27-16
By: John Boyne
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Thirsty
- A Novel
- By: Jas Hammonds
- Narrated by: Alaska Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s the summer before college and eighteen-year-old Blake Brenner and her girlfriend, Ella, have one goal: join the mysterious and exclusive Serena Society. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella’s acceptance is a sure thing—she’s the daughter of a Serena alum. Blake, however, has a lot more to prove. As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella’s pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she’s bold, funny, and unstoppable.
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Review
- By Anonymous User on 01-28-25
By: Jas Hammonds
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Allies
- By: Alan Gratz
- Narrated by: Jamie Cline, Vaneh Assadourian, P. J. Ochlan, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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D-Day, June 6, 1944: the most expansive military endeavor in history. No less than world cooperation would bring down Hitler and the Axis powers. And so people - and kids - across the globe lent their part. From the young US soldiers in the boats to spies in the French countryside, the coordination of thousands came together. Alan Gratz, author of the New York Times best-selling Refugee, explores the necessity of teamwork and heroism in dismantling tyranny in this epic, yet personal, look at D-Day in time for the 75th anniversary of the operation.
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Wonderful!
- By Claire on 02-03-20
By: Alan Gratz
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salt slow
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In her electrifying debut, Julia Armfield explores women’s experiences in contemporary society, mapped through their bodies. As urban dwellers’ sleeps become disassociated from them, like Peter Pan’s shadow, a city turns insomniac. A teenager entering puberty finds her body transforming in ways very different than her classmates’. As a popular band gathers momentum, the fangirls following their tour turn into something monstrous. After their parents remarry, two step-sisters, one a girl and one a wolf, develop a dangerously close bond.
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spooky and fantastic
- By Hallie on 11-13-22
By: Julia Armfield
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Under the Surface
- By: Diana Urban
- Narrated by: Rebecca Soler, Max Meyers
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Ruby is terrified to cave to her feelings for Sean and risk him crushing her heart. Sean is pumped to spend a week with Ruby in Paris on their senior class trip, and he’ll wait however long until she’s ready to take things further. But when Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but caves to another temptation: attending mystery boy’s exclusive party in the Paris catacombs, the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians. Only they never reach the party.
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Brilliant story
- By @joseph.hallett.author on 08-21-24
By: Diana Urban
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The Deadlands: Hunted
- By: Skye Melki-Wegner
- Narrated by: John Pirhalla
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Battle rages between the dinosaur kingdoms of Cretacea. When the Fallen Star struck, it brought death and despair, ash and toxic rain. But some dinosaurs survived . . . and were changed. Their minds grew alert. They learned to speak. To dream. To wage war. As the two remaining dinosaur kingdoms fight for territory, Eleri, the disgraced son of a prince, is exiled from his home for saving an enemy soldier. Banished to the merciless Deadlands, a terrifying desert full of tar pits, poisonous gas, and ruthless carnivores, he must join forces with a group of questionable allies.
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Loved this!
- By Cynthia Schumpert on 04-20-23
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A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Tim McInnerny
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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This story starts with a family. For now, it is a father and a mother with two sons, one with his father’s violence in his blood, one with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will determine their fate. It is a beginning. Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years. They will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium and journeying across 50 countries to a life among the stars, their destinies remain the same....
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AD 2016
- By Warren on 08-24-20
By: John Boyne
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Harold
- By: Steven Wright
- Narrated by: Steven Wright
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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From the outside, Harold is an average seven-year-old third grader growing up in the 1960s. Bored by school. Crushing on a girl. Likes movies and baseball—especially the hometown Boston Red Sox. Enjoys spending time with his grandfather. But inside Harold’s mind, things are a lot more complex and unusual. His thoughts come to him as birds flying through a small rectangle in the middle of his brain. He visits an outdoor cafe on the moon and is invited aboard a spaceship by famed astronomer Carl Sagan.
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Yes, Harold?
- By DC333 on 06-27-23
By: Steven Wright
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You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger
- By: Roger Hall
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. In his droll storytelling style, Hall describes his first parachute jump in support of the French resistance as a comedy of errors that terminated prematurely. Called one of the funniest and most perceptive works ever written about life in the OSS, the book includes a wealth of unforgettable personalities that Hall encountered over the years.
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Clipped every chapter
- By Ammon K. on 01-05-25
By: Roger Hall
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The Foundling
- The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me
- By: Paul Joseph Fronczak, Alex Tresniowski
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The Foundling tells the incredible and inspiring true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was - and set out to solve two 50-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way he upturned the genealogy industry, unearthed his family's deepest secrets, and broke open the second longest cold-case in US history, all in a desperate bid to find out who he really is.
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Prepare yourself for a journey that will take you to shocking places!
- By OUChris on 04-04-17
By: Paul Joseph Fronczak, and others
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The Absolutist
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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It is September 1919: Twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War. But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France.
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Love, War, and Guilt
- By Cariola on 01-27-13
By: John Boyne
What listeners say about The Boy at the Top of the Mountain
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- laconfidential
- 12-11-23
Fictionalized Hitler History Still Fascinates
Boyne is a wonderful storyteller and his historical fiction often gets it right, but he sometimes takes liberties with facts to advance the plot.
For example, he has the notorious filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl ("Triumph of the Will") at a Berghof birthday party getting interviews from top Nazis and shooting b-roll in the early 1940s. By all accounts, Reifenstahl did not visit the Berghof until 1944 with her husband. It was, in fact Hitler's mistress Eva Braun who shot "home movies" at the Berghof. And while we're on the subject of Braun, Boyne has her in the backseat of a car with Hitler and the protagonist for a visit to town, with the latter later describing Braun as Hitler's "intimate friend" to one of his friends. Braun's relationship with Hitler was a carefully guarded secret. Braun rarely accompanied Hitler in public, and only then was in the background. Great lengths were taken to hide her from the genera public. Hitler wanted to be portrayed as putting The Reich first, above all else, including romantic relationships. After Braun died in the bunker with Hitler, most Germans were surprised she existed.
The author also has the protagonist, a child, doing important (highly sensitive) note-taking at meetings. Hitler always had three secretaries on staff. One of these trusted staffers could surely have been asked to take notes (e.g., Trudl Junge who took down Hitler's will).
Boyne also omits historical characters who played an integral part in the Berghof's creation and daily life, notably Martin Bormann (Hitler's private secretary) who was in charge of construction of the estate and surrounding areas. Bormann was a loyal thug and often at odds with the Berghof household staff.
All this being said, Boyne's choices to change a few things will only be a sticking point with scholars - and even scholar's (and nerds like me) will have to admit that the author's liberties would be invisible to the average reader.
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- Sandy Horwitz
- 09-13-23
Excellent story
I love this story. The reaction to war and authoritarian control and its aftermath is very poignant and real
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- Donna Alengi
- 07-12-23
Wonderful story about a difficult subject. I am very impressed with Joh Boyne’s mind and creativity.
Mr. Boyne has a wonderful way of capturing my imagination as I read/listen to his well written stories! I’ve already begun looking for the next book. I like the way he continues characters, themes and places in his books, it’s like being on the "inside” of an elite group. I enjoy the narration and the use of accents.
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2 people found this helpful