Bringing Anne’s World to Life
Alice Hoffman has an extraordinary gift for illuminating the inner lives of young women on the cusp of adulthood. In “When We Flew Away,” she turns her empathetic eye and lyrical prose to one of the most famous teenage girls in history – Anne Frank. With meticulous research and vivid imagination, Hoffman crafts a moving portrait of Anne’s life from ages 10 to 13, in the years leading up to her family going into hiding during World War II.
The result is a rich tapestry that brings Anne’s world to life in all its vibrancy and growing darkness. We see Anne as a spirited, dramatic girl who loves books and dreams of being a writer. We witness her complicated relationships with her mother, her perfect older sister Margot, and her beloved father. And we feel the creeping dread as Nazi occupation slowly but inexorably closes in around the Frank family and other Jews in Amsterdam.
A Girl on the Verge
In When We Flew Away, Alice Hoffman captures Anne’s voice beautifully, with all its precocious wisdom, self-absorption, and yearning. This feels like the authentic Anne we know from her famous diary – a girl brimming with life and curiosity, grappling with her identity and place in the world. We see her first crush, her ambitions to be an actress or writer, her squabbles with her mother, her adoration of her father.
“Everything is brand new, how could I know what love is yet? Shouldn’t I have my whole life ahead of me? Shouldn’t I fall in love a dozen times over and have my heart broken and break someone else’s heart in return? Shouldn’t I have all the time in the world?” – This hunger to experience life fully, even as it’s being constrained, pulses through the novel. Anne emerges as a complex, sometimes difficult girl – self-centered and dramatic, but also thoughtful and perceptive beyond her years.
The Shadow of What’s to Come
Of course, we as readers carry the crushing knowledge of Anne’s eventual fate. Hoffman uses this to devastating effect, infusing scenes of normal childhood joys with a sense of fragility and foreboding. When Anne receives her famous checked diary for her 13th birthday, the excitement is tinged with poignancy. We know this diary will become her lifeline and her legacy.
Hoffman sprinkles in ominous details and foreshadowing throughout. Black moths appear at the windows. The rabbits in the square disappear. Jewish families vanish in the night. The overall effect is one of gathering storm clouds, of a noose slowly tightening.
A Family Under Pressure
While Anne is at the heart of “When We Flew Away”, Alice Hoffman also vividly portrays the rest of the Frank family. We see Otto Frank’s steadfast optimism crumbling as his efforts to get the family out of Amsterdam repeatedly fail. Edith Frank emerges as a complex, often misunderstood figure—a woman terrified for her children but unable to show her love in ways Anne can recognize.
The relationship between Anne and her sister Margot is particularly well-drawn. Initially distant, the sisters grow closer as their world narrows. There’s a lovely scene where they make wishes together at Miep’s wedding: “One day they would meet in a garden in Jerusalem surrounded by olive and cypress trees. They would eat figs and honey. They would sit side by side, grown women who had married for love.”
The Kindness of Friends
Hoffman also brings to life the network of friends and helpers who supported the Franks. We see the courage of Miep Gies and other employees who risk their lives to hide the family. And we meet Anne’s close friends like Hanneli and Jacque, relationships tinged with both warmth and, for the reader, sadness in knowing they’ll soon be torn apart.
A Deepening Darkness
As restrictions on Jews escalate, Hoffman powerfully conveys the psychological toll of living under occupation. The family’s world contracts, with each new rule and humiliation eroding their sense of belonging.
“We were not citizens and had no rights. There was no country to escape to, none would have us, none wanted us, none came to our rescue. We could not go out at night or raise our eyes when we passed soldiers on the street corners. We could not smile or laugh in public, and if we did, our mothers hushed us and tugged on our coats. Remember, they were telling us, we are living behind locked doors.” – Hoffman writes in one section.
When We Flew Away doesn’t shy away from depicting acts of cruelty and collaboration. We see Dutch children in Nazi uniforms taunting Jewish classmates. Anne witnesses a Jewish man being beaten and arrested for no reason. These scenes are all the more chilling for how mundane they become.
Glimmers of Light
Yet amidst the darkening world, Hoffman finds moments of beauty and connection. Anne’s first romance with a boy called “Hello” is sweetly rendered. Family celebrations like Margot’s 16th birthday have a bittersweet poignancy. And always there are books, Anne’s constant refuge and inspiration.
The Power of Writing
Fittingly for a novel about one of the world’s most famous diarists, “When We Flew Away” is deeply concerned with the power of writing. We see Anne discovering her voice through school assignments and secret scribbles. “A story could do many things,” Hoffman writes. “It could make you see the beauty in the world, it could give you hope when there was none, but in the end a story was only a story.”
The novel itself stands as a testament to this power. By imaginatively reconstructing Anne’s early years, Hoffman allows us to see her as a fully realized person, not just a symbol or martyr. This Anne lives and breathes on the page, making the tragedy of her fate all the more affecting.
A Masterful Historical Novel
Hoffman’s prose is characteristically lovely, with a dreamy, almost fairytale quality that contrasts effectively with the harsh realities she depicts. She weaves in historical details seamlessly, grounding the story in its time and place without ever feeling didactic.
The pacing is well-handled, with an increasing sense of urgency as the novel builds to its inevitable conclusion. The final scenes, as the Franks prepare to go into hiding, are gut-wrenching in their quiet devastation.
A Few Quibbles
If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s that Hoffman occasionally leans too heavily on foreshadowing, with repeated mentions of black moths and other ominous symbolism. And some readers may find the touches of magical realism—like Anne’s ability to see things others can’t—unnecessary in a story already so inherently dramatic.
But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise masterful work. Hoffman has clearly done extensive research, working closely with the Anne Frank House to ensure historical accuracy. Yet the novel never feels weighed down by this research—instead, it brings the period vividly to life.
A Timely Reminder
While set in the 1940s, “When We Flew Away” feels painfully relevant to our current moment. As Hoffman writes in her afterword, “What happened once can happen again. Evil does walk through the world, and it is often undetected until it’s too late, as it was in the Netherlands and throughout Europe.“
The novel serves as a powerful reminder of how quickly a society can turn against a minority group, and how essential it is to speak out against hatred and dehumanization. It’s a call to remember not just Anne, but all those lost in the Holocaust—and to remain vigilant against the forces that allowed such atrocities to occur.
Verdict: A Moving Tribute
“When We Flew Away” is a deeply moving, beautifully crafted novel that expands our understanding of Anne Frank’s story. By focusing on the years before Anne went into hiding, Hoffman allows us to see her as a vibrant, complex girl on the verge of becoming the insightful young woman we know from her diary.
This is not just a novel about Anne Frank, but about the loss of innocence, the power of words, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable evil. It’s a worthy addition to the body of Holocaust literature and a testament to Hoffman’s skill as a storyteller.
For readers familiar with Anne’s diary, this novel provides a rich backstory that will deepen their connection to her voice. For those new to Anne’s story, it serves as a poignant introduction that will likely send them reaching for the diary next.
In the end, “When We Flew Away” achieves what Anne herself hoped for in her writing—it ensures that she, and the millions like her, will be remembered. As Anne writes on her final wish tied to a tree: “Remember us. That is what she wished for. That is what she’d written down. Remember me.”
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About the Author
Alice Hoffman is the acclaimed author of over thirty novels, including bestsellers like “Practical Magic” and “The Dovekeepers.” She has a particular gift for blending historical detail with touches of magical realism. “When We Flew Away” continues her recent exploration of Jewish history and the Holocaust, following her 2019 novel “The World That We Knew.”