All the Broken Places

Alexander Darcy-Witt—Alex—is Gretel’s present-day antagonist. He abuses Henry and he abuses and gaslights his wife, Madelyn. He manipulates her into turning down acting roles and doesn’t let her have friends. As Alex admits, “I just can’t bear the idea of anyone else having access to Madelyn” (456). Though Gretel never explicitly mentions the movement, Alex is the type of predatory man exposed by the MeToo movement. Alluding to the campaign, Gretel says, “You do read stories about these intimidating film producers, don’t you? How they terrorize their staff and harass vulnerable young actresses. Perhaps they treat their families with a similar disregard” (182). Alex is toxic, and though MeToo has wrought consequences for some malicious men, Gretel doesn’t think anyone can bring Alex to justice until it’s too late. Gretel takes matters into her own hands and vanquishes her antagonist by killing him.

Alex’s brutality develops throughout the novel, creating suspense in the narrative but also slowly exposing details of his character as details of Gretel’s past come to light. In doing so, Boyne juxtaposes Alex’s cruelty with that of the Nazis. Gretel’s father tells her, “Those people, well, they’re not people at all” (73). Alex doesn’t think of Madelyn as a person. After Gretel confirms that he hits her, Alex replies, “I’d do the same to a dog” (439). About Alex, Madelyn says, “He’ll kill me” (209), just as Shmuel says Kurt will kill him if Gretel tells on Shmuel for stealing clothes. Alex isn’t a Nazi, and in fact uses Gretel’s past as an attempt to extort her, but Nazis don’t have a monopoly on wickedness. A person need not participate in genocide to be nefarious and irredeemable. Through Alex’s character, Boyne demonstrates people’s fascination with subjective violence. 

Kurt Kotler is Gretel’s romantic interest and the antagonist of her youth. As a 12-year-old, Gretel had a deep crush on the teen SS officer and dreamed about marrying him and starting a family. Kotler is handsome, and Gretel suggests that her mother might have had an affair with him, though Nathalie claims she didn’t.

As a young adult, Kotler’s presence antagonizes Gretel: He reminds her of the past and trauma she desperately wants to abandon. In Australia, Kurt has a pretty wife and a young son. Though Kurt comes across as a stern parent, he doesn’t seem abusive like Alex. Nonetheless, Kurt has a history of violence. He beats Pavel to death and punches Shmuel. Kurt, too, reveals the pull of subjective violence. Gretel tells him, “You’re nothing like my father” (291). Gretel’s father committed objective violence—he oversaw Auschwitz—but Gretel never saw her father commit personal violence. Thus, in Gretel’s eyes, Kurt is worse.

To evade Nazi hunters, Kurt changes his last name to Kozel. He doesn’t feel guilty for his role in the Holocaust, but he doesn’t appear fervently antisemitic. Gretel thinks he took pleasure in killing Jews, but Kurt says, “No [….] I took pleasure in the power that was in my hands. It was exciting and frightening at the same time” (313). In The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), the Holocaust survivor and German philosopher Hannah Arendt says Nazis created “objective enemies.” They didn’t target the Jews because of anything the Jews did: They did so because they needed a foe to get people accustomed to mass murder, and the Jews were the most disposable group at the time. Likewise, Kurt doesn’t brutalize the Jews because he hates them: He does it for the thrill of domination.

Heidi Hargrave lives across the hallway from Gretel in Flat Three and is the only resident of the building who has lived in her flat her entire life. A former runner and ophthalmologist, Heidi now has plantar fasciitis and a mental condition that, in Gretel’s words, makes her get “a little hazy from time to time” (22). Gretel looks after her and makes sure people don’t scam her or lead her into poor choices. When Oberon, her grandson, tries to get her to move to Australia and then participate in a home reversion, Gretel is there. At first, the reader might think Gretel is being a kind neighbor. In Part 3, Chapter 14, the author exposes that Heidi is Gretel’s daughter. As it turns out, Gretel isn’t a compassionate neighbor, but a good mother, subverting her claim that she wasn’t “entirely cut out for motherhood” (280).

Eleanor is a heart surgeon and Caden’s soon-to-be fourth wife. Gretel doesn’t think much of her at first. She mistakes her for a nurse and dismisses her as an attractive health nut, with Eleanor emphasizing the importance of walking at least 20,000 steps every day. Gretel doesn’t think Eleanor and Caden’s marriage will last, presuming, “All that would happen is that she would take a chunk of his money, be another recipient of monthly alimony, and leave him distraught once again” (235). Gretel is wrong. Eleanor becomes Gretel’s confidant and sidekick, as Gretel tells Eleanor about Alex and what happened with Hugo in Australia. Over the course of the narrative, Eleanor evolves from another future ex-daughter-in-law to Gretel’s trusted friend.

Gretel pairs Caden (her son) and Oberon (Heidi’s grandson), as both are predatory, though not on the same level as Alex, Kurt, or the Resistance members. Their predation relates to money and trying to manipulate their mother (in Caden’s case) and grandmother (in Oberon’s case) to sell their pricey flats so that they can get a share of the money. Caden and Oberon claim they want what’s best for Heidi and Gretel. Oberon wants to care for Heidi in Australia, and Caden claims to worry about Gretel on the stairs, but Gretel is suspicious. The two characters turn out to be innocuous, with Eleanor praising Caden’s qualities and Oberon ditching his plan to move to Australia and expressing his wish that his grandmother will live for many more years. Nonetheless, they represent suspicion for Gretel.

Henry Darcy-Witt is the nine-year-old son of Madelyn and Alex, and he reminds Gretel of Bruno. Like Bruno, he loves exploring and reading. By noticing Bruno’s bruises, Gretel realizes he and his mother are in an abusive situation. As the signs accumulate, Gretel intervenes. While she initially dreaded living above a child, let alone a young boy, Gretel grows to view Henry as a symbol of penance. By helping him, she can do what she should’ve done in the past. As Gretel tells Alex, “I haven’t been able to save anyone. Not once. And I might be too late to save your wife. But by God, I intend to save that little boy” (461). Through Henry, Gretel ends harmful patterns. She doesn’t keep the abuse a secret and add to her guilt: She uses the power she has and takes action.

Madelyn is Alex’s husband and Henry’s mother. At first, Gretel thinks Madelyn is superficial and scatterbrained. Gretel dismisses Madelyn as “one of these women who spend their mornings in the gym and then meets friends for lunch and is blotto on cocktails by teatime” (123). As Madelyn’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic and concerning, Gretel realizes that she is not the problem, but her husband. Dialogue also helps Gretel realize Alex’s vile conduct, as Madelyn confides in Gretel about Alex’s possessiveness. 

Nathalie is Gretel’s mother, and Nathalie isn’t her mother’s real first name, but neither this book nor The Boy in the Striped Pajamas reveals her real name. Nathalie is a foil. In other words, her lack of qualities enhances Gretel’s positive traits. While Nathalie denies any guilt for the Nazi associations, Gretel accepts complicity. Nathalie wants to continue to evade their past and keep it a secret, but, in 1946 Paris, Gretel suggests confronting their real identities, telling her mother, “We could always leave [….] We could start again. With our old names” (142). Nathalie is stubborn, and her refusal to listen to her daughter leads to the brutal head-shaving scene. Nathalie doesn’t lack a conscience. She’s aware of what she was a part of, which is why she drinks. Eventually, alcohol and guilt kill her.

Cait is a tall, voluptuous young woman Gretel meets on the boat to Australia. Like Gretel, Cait is funny and independent. Similar to Gretel, Cait has a secret—she’s a lesbian. When Gretel meets Cait’s partner one morning, Cait tells her, “Women have been put in prison for what you’ve found out about me today” (228). The tragic irony is that Cait had a higher chance of being jailed for her sexuality than Gretel for her Nazi past. Through Cait, Gretel begins to confront her Nazi past. She visits the bar Cait works at, and that’s how she discovers Kurt is in Australia.

Edgar is Gretel’s husband, whom she met in London when she moved there in 1953. At first, she dates David, Edgar’s friend, but after David discovers Gretel’s past and breaks up with her, she moves on to Edgar. At first, Edgar wants to hate her, but he still likes her. He’s a historian famous for a three-volume popular history about World War II and the Holocaust. Ironically, Gretel spends her life with a man keenly aware of the past she wants to conceal. Through Edgar’s aunt, the couple gets the money to buy a flat in Winterville Court and be close to Heidi.

David is an assistant manager at Harrods, and all the girls there have crushes on him. He and Gretel have pleasurable sex, and he doesn’t shame her for enjoying it. However, after Gretel tells him about her past, he berates and leaves her. As Nazis gassed David’s mother, father, and sister at Treblinka, he is simply unable to reconcile the truth about her past with his trauma. David is Caden’s biological father.

Émile and Rémy serve as romantic interests and antagonists during Gretel and Nathalie’s time in France. Gretel picks Émile for a sexual relationship, and Nathalie wants to marry Rémy, viewing him as a way to regain the status she lost after the war. Both characters are red herrings. They don’t want romantic relationships with Gretel and Nathalie, but, as members of the French Resistance, they want to punish them for their Nazi ties. They trick Gretel and Nathalie into coming to the warehouse, and then they and other survivors of Nazi violence brutally shave their heads. The helplessness of Gretel and Nathalie, and the fact they held no official position in the Nazi regime, makes Émile and Rémy seem more like sadistic than justice-seeking.

Shmuel is a nine-year-old boy that Gretel meets when her father shows her Auschwitz. Shmuel makes Gretel realize that Bruno has been visiting him, but Shmuel doesn’t help Gretel understand the systematic murder taking place around her. After Shmuel tells her that he’ll die soon, Gretel replies, “Nonsense. No one would let a child your age die” (336). The dialogue with Shmuel furthers Gretel’s claim that didn’t know about the genocide.