Annexed

Sharon Dogar

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,  October 2010

I look out the window into the street . . . I'm meant to be at Mr. Frank's workplace in a few hours. We're arriving separately, all of us. We'll walk into the building just like it was any other visit -- only this time we'll never walk out again.

What was it like hiding in the Annex with Anne Frank? To be with Anne every day while she wrote so passionately in her diary? To be in a secret world within a world at war -- alive on the inside, everything dying on the outside?

Peter Van Pels and his family have lost their country, their home, and their freedom, and now they are fighting desperately to remain alive.

Look through Peter's eyes.

He has a story to tell, too.

Are you listening?

Hardcover | ISBN: 9780547501956 | Publication Date: October 2010

Reviews:
"While Annexed does not depend upon a prior reading of The Diary of a Young Girl for interest or understanding, readers of that book will appreciate the opportunity to see Anne Frank's story given a benefit it could not have: hindsight."- - The Horn Book, starred review

"Readers are enlightened and deeply moved . . . Annexed is a superb addition to the Holocaust literature, and should not be missed."- - School Library Journal, starred review

"Showing equal skill in bringing history to life and in capturing the spirit of a young man searching for his identity amid chaos, Dogar has written a novel as provocative as it is devastating."- - Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The lines between written record, educated guess, and fictional construct are fascinatingly blurred here . . .made all the more so when readers consider the role perspective, translation, and editing play in the written record. The book's skillful synthesis of all these facets should stimulate discussion about the nature of history, fiction, and truth."- - The Bulletin, starred review

"[Annexed] is compassionate and thoughtful, told in a very intimate way. Dogar gets the claustrophobia of the annexe across brilliantly, as it escapes in pointless bickering and petty resentments, but the picture of vital, interesting people with hopes, dreams, loves and ambitions rises equally vividly from the pages. Peter himself is wonderfully drawn: painfully shy, introspective and independent of thought."- - The Book Bag (UK)