Annexed [Hardcover]

The premise of this novel is really interesting... It takes the historical figure Peter Van Pels who appears in The Diary of Anne Frank and re imagines Anne's story from his point of view and even continues the story beyond where Anne's diaries end, into Auschwitz. The author has attempted to maintain as much historical accuracy as is known about the annex and the families who stayed there in order to frame her imagining of Peter's story. For those who have read The Diary of Anne Frank this may be an interesting read but we must remember that it is fictional and Peter is not known to have kept any diaries so the novel cannot provide any further insight into the facts of Anne's life or those of the families she hid with in the annex.

For me, the major let down of this novel was the writing style and the 'voice' that Peter is given. It seems to rely too heavily on jaunty, basic dialogue and exchanges between 'characters' seem trivialised. I would love to have seen more of a development of Peter's thoughts- longer passages where the reader got to connect with him and have a greater insight into his thoughts and feelings while trapped in the annex. Despite the difficulty of the subject matter at hand I feel that the author's target audience could have handled a much more authentic engagement with the seriousness of the events of the time.

All in all an interesting idea but poorly executed and written at too basic a level for it's 'young adult' target audience.

I loved the premise of this book - that someone sharing Anne Frank's 'Secret Annex' could provide an alternative viewpoint of the time spent in hiding - but the execution itself was a little disappointing for me. Whereas the 'real' diary is packed full of trivial, but compelling information (meals the families ate, gifts given on birthdays, gossip from outside), 'Annexed' focuses mainly on the very insular thoughts of teenage Peter van Pels, separated from his girlfriend, feeling lonely and awkward among the strong female characters. The author seems reluctant to provide the same day-to-day minutiae that were so fascinating in the original (possibly to avoid repetition) but equally seems to be wary of moving too far from Anne's version of events (out of respect for historical fact?). The book thus seems to be 'caught between two stools'. The end (recounting time spent in the concentration camp and on the march) is more successful - possibly because there are no detailed records of Peter's life after the Annex (that I'm aware of), thus allowing a little more poetic licence. There is also a moving section describing the various fates of all the other Annex occupants. In short, a very original idea, but not nearly as arresting as the real thing.

I didn't know quite what to expect from this novel. The Diary of a Young Girl is one of my favourite books of all time, so the idea of a novelisation of the same events was simultaneously exciting and just a little bit worrying. Happily - and to my great relief - I found that for the most part, Dogar's endeavour manages to walk the fine line between 'respectful tribute' and 'artistic license' quite successfully!

The book is written from the point of view of Peter van Pels, the teenage son of the family in hiding with the Franks. It begins with Peter watching his (entirely fictional) girlfriend Liese and her family being rounded up and driven away. He can only stand in the road in despair. He makes his way reluctantly to the warehouse to join the Frank family - and his first impressions don't exactly fill him with joy... But slowly he adapts to life in the annexe, finds a new strength he didn't know he had, and begins an odd flirtation with livewire Anne.

This romantic element seems to be the main issue for many of the novel's detractors, but actually I found it quite subtle and entirely plausible. In such a confined space, with hormones raging and very little to engage their attention elsewhere, I found it completely believable that precocious young Anne could set her sights on Peter - and that he might feel extremely conflicted about it, but also tempted by her quick wit and cheerful charm. I occasionally found Peter's narrative a little self-conscious and slow, even manipulative at times, and it didn't have all the little details about daily life that made Anne's journal really come alive, but I still enjoyed it! I thought Dogar's depiction of the various characters living in the annexe was spot-on, and she captured the experience of a frustrated teenage boy rather well.

Unlike Anne's iconic diary, which obviously ended just before the annexe's occupants were found and taken away, Dogar extends her novel right through to Auschwitz and beyond - and this is where I thought she really excelled. Peter's whole narrative is precipitated by his flood of memories as he lies in the sick bay at Mauthausen, deliriously waiting for the call to wake up and start another day in hell. Between chapters there are occasional interjections from the dying boy to remind the reader that this is not going to end well. After they are captured Peter describes the horrendous train journey out of Amsterdam, the separation from his mother and the Frank women, how he learned to survive in the camps, and how he lost his father to the gas chambers. I could barely read the last twenty pages or so, I was crying so hard.

At the end of the day, it may be uncomfortable reading but I don't think we can ever remind ourselves too often of the evil that humanity has perpetuated in the past, especially when hatred and ignorance are still used as excuses to inflict pain on minority groups today. It really is well worth a read, whether you're already familiar with The Diary of a Young Girl or not, and I think it would make fantastic supplementary material for a high school project, for example. Dogar includes a brief epilogue at the end of the book explaining where and how each of the characters died, as well as a short bibliography which includes seminal works of Holocaust literature like Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and Elie Wiesel's Night. Recommended.