Acknowledgments
Sitting at a laptop, tapping away at the keyboard, can be isolating. But thankfully there have been many more people involved in the creation of this book than simply myself, and I owe them all my gratitude and deep appreciation. I hope I have made that clear to them over the years it has taken to complete this novel, but I’d also like the opportunity to do so in print.
I must thank my incredible agent, the best of the best, Rebecca Gradinger of Fletcher and Company, whose hard work and devotion made it possible for me to continue over the long journey of the soul this project became. Her commitment, patience, and insight through multiple drafts kept me focused and on track, and honestly I could not have written this book without her. Additionally, many thanks to Christy Fletcher, founder of her amazing agency, and to Veronica Goldstein for her professional support and excellent management of the myriad details.
My deep appreciation goes to my wonderfully patient and simply outstanding editor, Sarah Stein, who did the detailed in-the-trenches editing that balanced the narrative flow and kept the story lean and the prose well polished. Thank you, Sarah. Your dedication was immense, and I owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude.
Thank you to Viking editor in chief Andrea Schulz for her devotion to the book and for her essential work in shaping the novel’s contours. And my thanks to Viking publisher Brian Tart for his commitment, as well as to all the other incredible professionals at Penguin Random House with whom I am honored to work. I’m so grateful to assistant editor Shannon Kelly, whose hard work and great dedication to the project have been invaluable; to Maureen Sugden, whose copyedit was so sensitively and skillfully done that it felt like a true collaboration; to production editor Bruce Giffords; to Nancy Resnick, interior design, and Brianna Harden, whose cover design is perfect; to marketing director Kate Stark and Mary Stone, title marketer; to publicity director Lindsay Prevette and Louise Braverman, publicist; and to the entire Penguin Random House sales staff, who have dedicated long hours of heavy lifting to bringing the book to readers. Thank you all for getting Annelies to its audience.
My gratitude goes also to Amy Einhorn, who published my first novel, City of Women, under her imprint, and who originally bought the Anne Frank book. Thank you, Amy.
I want to extend my appreciation as well to those who supported me along the way. Thank you to my writing consultant, Carol Edelstein of A Gallery of Readers, who acted as a valuable sounding board for the work, and to Ans van der Graaff of Ans van der Graaff Vertaalservice in Middelburg, Netherlands, whose translation skills were so helpful to me in my research. Thank you to my fellow writers Pat Stacey and Charles Mann, who listened to me go on and on about this book and continued to be supportive throughout. I also greatly value my social media connections with fellow writers Jillian Cantor, Lyndsay Faye, Kathleen Grissom, Judy Hooper, Pam Jenoff, Erika Marks, Paula McLain, Julie Ries, Erika Robuck, Kate Whouley, and Andria Williams.
In my research, I had vital assistance from several sources. I must offer immense gratitude to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam for allowing me access to areas of the house not normally available to the public, such as the office kitchen and the private office, both spots where important scenes in the book are set. Also, I would like to pay my respects to the memory of Cornelius Suijk, who passed away in 2014 at the age of ninety. In his youth, Cor was a member of the Dutch resistance. He was also a friend of both Otto Frank and Miep Gies and served the Anne Frank House as a board member and as a director. Cor, it is an honor to have known you.
My gratitude goes as well to the Ymere Corporation and communications adviser Andre Bakker for a tour of the Frank family flat in the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam South. Andre was quite generous with his time and expertise, and extended his tour beyond the Merwedeplein to a number of spots of historic interest across the town, including the former Jewish Quarter and the building that housed the so-called Joods Lyceum. He was a tremendous resource for me. But, at his request, I must also mention that he did his best to persuade me not to write about Anne Frank. As he pointed out, there were many Jewish families such as Anne’s in Amsterdam who suffered under the Nazis and came to tragic ends in places such as Birkenau and Belsen. And wouldn’t it be of greater benefit to explore their struggles instead? This was, he explained, the position of the Ymere Corporation, and why he had extended his tour beyond Anne Frank’s story, to the larger tragedy that engulfed the Jewish community during the war. My only response is that, though I both understood and deeply respected this point of view, that was not the book I was writing, and I hope that other writers take up his challenge and do justice to all the other stories that comprise the tragedy that befell Amsterdam’s Jewish population.
Finally, I cannot forget my family, who not only supported me throughout the process but provided me with respite and encouragement: my mother, Marcia Gillham; my sister, Lisa Gillham; and my boys, Cameron Gemmell and Alexander Pavlova-Gillham.
And as always, I must thank, from the depth of my being, my life’s partner and wife, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, who is still my touchstone in all things.
About the Author
David R. Gillham is the New York Times bestselling author of City of Women. He studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California before transitioning into fiction. After moving to New York City, Gillham spent more than a decade in the book business, and he now lives with his family in Western Massachusetts. In writing this book he has spent six years researching Anne Frank and her world, immersing himself in the available material and traveling to important landmarks of her life.
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