Ellen Feldman

THE BOY WHO LOVED ANNE FRANK

A New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.”

“An appealing and inventive novel...original and cathartic.”
— New York Times

“An ambitious novel about war, identity and the past.”
— Chicago Tribune

“A powerful testament to the permanence of war's imprint on the innocent, and how that experience defines a life forever.”
— Newsday

“An audacious novel...whose sensational theme never tarnishes the passion and delicacy with which Feldman tells her gripping story.”
— American Heritage Magazine

“Seamless weaving of fact and fiction gives The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank tension to spare, making it a story of unexpected suspense...a page-turner.”
— The Forward

“Inventive.”
— The Boston Globe

“Engaging and morally questioning.”
— USA Today

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On February 16, 1944, Anne Frank recorded in her diary that Peter, whom she at first disliked and eventually came to love, had confided to 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, 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 in-fighting, 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.

Click to watch Ellen discuss the book at the Wadsworth Public Library.