The inspiration for JOJO RABBIT, winner of the Academy Award for Best
Adapted Screenplay, by director Taika Waititi, and nominated for 6
Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
An extraordinary, strikingly original novel that reveals a world of
truth and lies both personal and political, Caging Skies is told
through the eyes of Johannes Betzler, avid member of the Hitler Youth
during World War II. Filled with admiration for the Führer and Nazi
ideals, he is shocked to discover his parents are hiding a Jewish girl
named Elsa behind a false wall in their home in Vienna.
After he's disfigured in a raid, Johannes focuses more and more on his
connection with the girl behind the wall. His initial horror and
revulsion turn to interest--and then obsession. After his parents
disappear, Johannes is the only one aware of Elsa's existence in the
house, and he alone is responsible for her fate. Drawing strength from
his daydreams about Hitler, Johannes plans for the end of the war and
what it might mean for him and Elsa.
The inspiration for the major film Jojo Rabbit, directed by Taika
Waititi, Caging Skies, sold in twenty-two countries, is a work of rare
power; a stylistic and storytelling triumph. Startling, blackly comic,
and written in Christine Leunens's gorgeous, muscular prose, this novel,
her US debut, is singular and unforgettable.
