The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank – A Novel of Remembering and Forgetting - Softcover

Feldman, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393327809 ISBN 13: 9780393327809

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006

Synopsis

On February 16, 1944, Anne Frank recorded in her diary that Peter, whom she at first disliked but eventually came to love, had confided in her that if he got out alive, he would reinvent himself entirely. This is the story of what might have happened if the boy in hiding survived to become a man. Peter arrives in America, the land of self-creation; he flourishes in business, marries, and raises a family. He thrives in the present, plans for the future, and has no past. But when The Diary of a Young Girl is published to worldwide acclaim and gives rise to bitter infighting, he realizes the cost of forgetting. Based on extensive research of Peter van Pels and the strange and disturbing life Anne Frank's diary took on after her death, this is a novel about the memory of death, the death of memory, and the inescapability of the past. Reading group guide included.

About this title

Review:

Engaging and morally questioning . . . for those who have read only the diary or seen the play or movie, the novel will prompt them to think about her and a host of larger questions in new ways.

An audacious novel . . . whose sensational theme never tarnishes the passion and delicacy with which Feldman tells her gripping story.

A deeply affecting, unsettling look into the soul of a man. . . . A psychologically gripping tale, this will cause readers to think about the price of safety and the complex obligations of memory.

A powerful testament to the permanence of war's imprint on the innocent, and how that experience defines a life forever.--Stephen J Lyons

Book Description:

'We have records of what happened to all the inhabitants of the secret annexe except Peter.'

- A guide on a tour of the Anne Frank House, January 1994

What if the boy in hiding with Anne Frank survived and reinvented himself after the war, as he swore in the diary to do?

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0393327809
• ISBN 13: 9780393327809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288