A beautiful novel exploring the little-known story of Anne Frank’s life before she went into hiding – from bestselling, award-winning author Alice Hoffman and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House.

In soaring prose, bestselling author Alice Hoffman brings Anne Frank to life on the page, drawing from her extensive research in Europe and the United States, to depict her experiences from the moment the Nazis invade the Netherlands until her family is forced into hiding in the annex of her father’s office building at 263 Prinsengracht, in Amsterdam.

As state-sponsored discrimination turns ordinary people into monsters, the Jews of the Netherlands are caught in an inescapable swell of violence and hate, and Anne is shaped as both a young woman and as a writer who will change the world.

WHEN WE FLEW AWAY features archival content provided by the Anne Frank House, as well as information about Otto Frank’s desperate bids to get his family to safety in America gathered from correspondence between Otto Frank and Nathan Straus, Jr., from the Straus Historical Society’s Archives.

A heart-wrenching exploration of Anne’s life before the annex

By New York Times bestselling author of The World We Knew, Alice Hoffman

Featuring archival content provided by the Anne Frank House

ALICE HOFFMAN

Alice Hoffman is the author of thirty works of fiction, including Practical Magic, The Dovekeepers, Lessons, and, most recently, The Book of Magic. She lives in Boston. Her new novel, The Invisible Hour, is forthcoming in August 2023.