I was not planning to write a review of Annexed because of all the questions it raised in me about historical fiction. The Diary of a Young Girl, with its optimism and intimacy, made the Annexe come alive to all of us. I read it years ago and was left feeling hollow because vivacious Anne Frank, who died perhaps equally of loneliness and of typhus, could not have, should not have died.But what of the others in the Annexe whom we see only through Anne's eyes? What of her father who survived and the others who didn't? What of Peter, the only young boy in the Annexe, who lived to be eighteen in a concentration camp?Annexed is the story from Peter's point of view. Right at the beginning, I was uncomfortable. Peter and Anne were real people with real stories. Was it okay to create a fictional character Liese, with whom Peter is in love at the beginning of the story? And as things … [Read more...]