First published 2005
Peter van Pels escapes the horrors that claimed Anne Frank and the others who shared their hiding place. He crosses the ocean to America, determined to bury his past completely. In this new country, he builds a successful business, finds a wife, and starts a family. He refuses to look backward, living only in the present and future. Then Anne's diary reaches publication and becomes a global phenomenon. Suddenly the world knows intimate details of their time together in the Secret Annex. Peter watches as their shared story gets twisted, debated, and commercialized. The careful wall he built between his old life and new one begins to crumble. As Anne's words spark fierce public arguments and legal battles, Peter faces an impossible choice. He can continue denying his past, or he can confront the memories he has spent decades trying to forget. The cost of either decision threatens to destroy the life he has worked so hard to create.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, fish-out-of-water
Setting: America, Secret Annex
Period: World War II
Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: war