John Boyne writes so well he makes me want to reread his lovely sentences. This is one of the biggest reasons I've given five stars to all of his books that I've read so far. And I would have given five to THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE, too, but for its beginning. While Boyne's writing is as beautiful as ever in this book, it seemed to me in the first quarter that this was going to be a character-driven story with little plot, less a story than a series of incidences.

Later I realized these incidences are what the story depends on.

Also, Boyne skips from one year to another, sometimes back and sometimes forward. I didn’t see the logic of that at first. It seemed haphazard. But it wasn’t.

I saw how skillfully Boyne builds anticipation in this way. Rather than just present a story, he manages his presentation.

In the end, I love this book as much as his others. But I rate it with four stars rather than five because it didn’t grab me right away.