The Many Lives of Anne Frank

By: Ruth Franklin

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Hardcover | 26 June 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
440 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 15.4 x 3.0

Hardcover

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A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diary

"Trenchant. . . . An essential look at the diarist's legacy."—Publishers Weekly

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.

About the Author

Ruth Franklin is the author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Industry Reviews

"Ms. Franklin has done a wonderful thing here. While giving an analysis of the obliterating phenomenon of 'Anne,' she continually points back to the real-life girl in a way that feels fresh and persuasive. . . . [Her] technique . . . gives verve and texture to this fine book."-Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal

"With sensitivity and assiduous research, [Franklin] constructs 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, "Best Books We Read This Week"

"Clearly and powerfully told. . . . One of the best accounts of the many lives-and afterlives-of Anne Frank."-David Herman, Times Literary Supplement

"Humane, generous . . . a rare combination of lightness and equanimity. . . . It is unusual for a book to have a companion as faithful and elegant as the one Frank's diary finds here. Franklin has performed an invaluable service-or, to put it another way, a mitzvah."-Alexander Nazaryan, Los Angeles Times

"Trenchant. . . . An essential look at the diarist's legacy."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A book that should be read and discussed for generations. . . . Read this book. You won't regret it."-John Warner, Chicago Tribune

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