Hugo Hamilton's The Pages is narrated by a book that survived the Nazi regime's ceremonial book burning in wartime Berlin. Censorship of books has been a recurring issue throughout history, which suggests the power and influence of the written word and poses questions surrounding the motivation and fears of the censors.

The book burning alluded to in The Pages was part of a Nazi campaign against any publication deemed subversive; the aim was to align all German arts and culture with Nazi ideology (Gleichschaltung). On the cool and drizzly night of May 10, 1933, the Nazi Party's Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, stood on a flag-draped rostrum in Berlin's Opera Square (now renamed Bebelplatz, or "Bebel Square"). This was his ceremony, and he readied himself to address an audience of around 40,000 Germans — many of them students with blazing torches — at midnight. The atmosphere can be imagined: the throng of traditional military ...