Fascinating story about what if: for a boy that didn't survive, just thre days short of his cmap being liberated.
What if the boy that was locked in the attic with Anne Frank had survived and moved to America?
Very powerful! ( )

The taste of rotten potatoes and moldy beans, and the cold that turned by mother's hands white as frost under the moth-eaten gloves, and the heat that beat down from the sky and steamed up from the streets where we were forbidden to walk, and the terror, and the degradation of the terror. I was trapped in that book as I had been trapped in that house. But - and this was what I could not understand - I was homesick for it too. I longed for those rank-smelling rooms where the walls steamed in summer and dripped as if in a cold sweat in winter. I yearned for those parents. I missed Anne. I ached for myself.

The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank is a what-if. What if Peter van Pels did not die in the Mauthausen concentration camp in May of 1945? What if he immigrated to America, denied his Jewish heritage and reinvented himself? What would that fresh start be like? What if the boy from the Annex grew up and had his own family? What if he stumbled across The Diary of Anne Frank? What if his wife became obsessed with the play of the book and the movie made from the play?

This is a book that drips with emotion and feeling. Peter is a man dealing with PTSD and he can't get away from the Annex because Anne Frank is a phenomenon. She is everywhere. If he is forced to go through those events over and over again, at least they could get the facts straight. He sees the way his trauma is affecting his wife and children and he tries to reign it all in. Feldman does such an excellent job at the psychological tension.

Highly recommended. ( )

Very, very good. Nice progression of the characters, especially the main character. Very believable, heart-wrenching story. ( )

The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank tells the story of Peter Van Pels, who was holed up in the annex in Amsterdam with his family and the Frank family. Instead of him dying during a death march in a concentration camp, this book has him escaping with his life, moving to America and beginning a new life. He marries and starts a family but keeps to himself the true story of his past, which continues to haunt him throughout his life.

This is a very well-written book and one which I enjoyed reading. The first third or so built up the story and then suddenly it took off and I could hardly put it down. It's a fascinating story of what ifs and an enjoyable mix of fact and fiction. It also made me think about what it would be like to have lived like that and escaped, and how you might feel about your lost family, feeling almost a sense of guilt for having survived. A thought-provoking and interesting novel that has been unread on my bookshelf for too long. ( )

Not what I expected! This story surprised me and took me away from the cliche I thought it would be. There is much depth to the main character and when he cannot let go of his past and chooses to accept, discover and divulge it becomes raw and real. ( )