Kindness, Memory and Hope: A Guest Post by Alice Hoffman
What was Anne Frank’s life like before the Nazi invasion? Award-winning author Alice Hoffman reimagines the early years of an irrepressible figure in history through this poignant portrait.
Hardcover $19.99
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
In Stock Online
Hardcover $19.99
Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel about one of contemporary history’s most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank’s life before she went into hiding.
Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel about one of contemporary history’s most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank’s life before she went into hiding.
I read Anne Frank’s diary at the age of 12, and in many ways, it was the book that allowed me to think it might be possible to be a writer. Anne’s beautiful narrative voice made me feel that I knew her, and, as all great books do, it also made me feel known. She expressed many of the feeling I had: loneliness, uncertainty, fear. I realized that words had a life of their own, that they could change the world, that they could live on long after we were gone.
I wrote about a young girl’s connection with Anne Frank in my novel The Third Angel when my character’s loss of her mother leaves in a state of grief, an outsider without hope, until she reads the diary. It’s a connection that so many readers feel, no matter their age and the facts of their own lives. When Scholastic asked if I might want to write a novel about Anne’s life before the Frank family went into hiding, I didn’t have to think twice. From the start, I felt that it was the book I was meant to write. Now in these difficult political times, I believe Anne’s story matters more than ever. It is a reminder of the need for compassion, understanding, and faith in the future. It’s about the Holocaust and the plight of the Jews, but it is also story that resonates for all outsiders, immigrants, and people who are marginalized.
I was fortunate enough to work with the historians at The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, to go behind the scenes at the museum, to visit the apartment where the Franks lived before they went into hiding, and to get to know her neighborhood whee she had lived. I visited Anne’s school, still filled with children in their classes where the tree that she saw every day still grows in the courtyard, and I had the honor of visiting with Anne’s friend Jacqueline and her son in their apartment. I will always be grateful for these intimate connections with the life that Anne lead, speaking with friends and experts who were so generous with their time and knowledge, sitting on the roof of her apartment and watching the clouds in the sky.
I am certain that When We Flew Away is the book that my grandmother, Lily, would have most wanted me to write. Her stories about growing up in Russia on a frozen river, in a village where wolves roamed, allowed me to envision other worlds and other lives. In imagining Anne’s life, my goal is to introduce Anne both to readers who have never been told her story and readers who already know it well. My deepest hope is that upon finishing When We Flew Away, my readers will want to go on to Anne’s diary, whether for the first time or the tenth time, and that together we will all be reminded of what matters most in the world: Love and family. Kindness and memory and hope.
