Margot

Author: Jillian Cantor
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2013
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend


Synopsis: Anne Frank has long been a symbol of bravery and hope, but there were two sisters hidden in the annex, two young Jewish girls, one a cultural icon made famous by her published diary and the other, nearly forgotten.

In the spring of 1959, The Diary of Anne Frank has just come to the silver screen to great acclaim, and a young woman named Margie Franklin is working in Philadelphia as a secretary at a Jewish law firm. On the surface she lives a quiet life, but Margie has a secret: a life she once lived, a past and a religion she has denied, and a family and a country she left behind.

Margie Franklin is really Margot Frank, older sister of Anne, who did not die in Bergen-Belsen as reported, but who instead escaped the Nazis for America. But now, as her sister becomes a global icon, Margie’s carefully constructed American life begins to fall apart. A new relationship threatens to overtake the young love that sustained her during the war, and her past and present begin to collide. Margie is forced to come to terms with Margot, with the people she loved, and with a life swept up into the course of history.

 

Review: It's been a long time since I had the luxury of reading a book cover-to-cover in one sitting, but that's exactly what I did. In 3 hours I began and finished this novel.

It will never be called a great piece of American Literature, but the author wove a believable, touching tribute to Margot Frank. As Cantor says, she gave Margot her happy ending.

As I do anytime I read books pertaining to the Holocaust, I shed many tears for victims whose lives and legacies were cut short.