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The Many Lives of Anne Frank
- Author
- Ruth Franklin
- Narrator
- Erin Bennett
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 27 January 2025
- Run Time
- 12 hours 38 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diary
In this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929–1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding, now translated into more than seventy languages, is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust.
Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II while also telling the story of the diary—its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world. Writing alongside Anne rather than over her, Franklin explores the day-to-day perils of the Holocaust in the Netherlands as well as Anne’s ultimate fate, restoring her humanity and agency in all their messiness, heroism, and complexity.
With antisemitism once again in the news, The Many Lives of Anne Frank takes a fresh and timely look at the debates around Anne’s life and work, including the controversial adaptations of the diary, Anne’s evolution as a fictional character, and the ways her story and image have been politically exploited. Franklin reveals how Anne has been understood and misunderstood, both as a person and as an idea, and opens up new avenues for interpreting her life and writing in today’s hyperpolarized world.
Critics Review
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“Narrator Erin Bennett approaches the text with profound respect for Anne and her memory…Bennett smoothly weaves the narrative, whose expressive range is remarkable in both depth and breadth…A memorable performance with just the right tone and feeling. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
AudioFile
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“A vivid cultural history that advocates for a reevaluation of Frank, not as a symbol or a saint but as a human being and a literary artist.”
New Yorker
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“Quite moving are the ‘interludes’ testifying to the diary’s impact on individual readers across the globe. A final chapter, ‘Anne in the Political World’…speculating on how Anne might have viewed these issues if she had survived.”
Kirkus Reviews
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“The biography succeeds in ‘restoring as a human being rather than an icon,’ and Franklin’s probing examination of the eventful afterlife of Frank’s diary testifies to how the lessons of the Holocaust continue to be litigated. This is an essential look at the diarist’s legacy.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Ruth Franklin
- Narrator
- Erin Bennett
- Duration
- 12 hours 38 minutes
- Release Date
- 27 January 2025
- ISBN
- 9798228296626
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Biography: general, The Holocaust, Biography: general, Biography: writers, General and world history
Synopsis
A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diaryIn this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929–1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding, now translated into more than seventy languages, is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust.Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II while also telling the story of the diary—its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world. Writing alongside Anne rather than over her, Franklin explores the day-to-day perils of the Holocaust in the Netherlands as well as Anne’s ultimate fate, restoring her humanity and agency in all their messiness, heroism, and complexity.With antisemitism once again in the news, The Many Lives of Anne Frank takes a fresh and timely look at the debates around Anne’s life and work, including the controversial adaptations of the diary, Anne’s evolution as a fictional character, and the ways her story and image have been politically exploited. Franklin reveals how Anne has been understood and misunderstood, both as a person and as an idea, and opens up new avenues for interpreting her life and writing in today’s hyperpolarized world.
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