Scholastic has announced the forthcoming publication of When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary, a new book about Anne Frank by novelist Alice Hoffman. The story will highlight the life of Dutch diarist Anne Frank before she was forced to go into hiding due to Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
World English rights were acquired by Miriam Farbey and Lisa Sandell at Scholastic Press in a deal with Amanda Urban of CAA. The book is being published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House.
Ellie Berger, president of Scholastic Trade Publishing, said in a statement, “In this time of rising antisemitism, there was no author more suited to showing the real-life, heart-breaking consequences and devastation wrought by this prejudice than Alice Hoffman.”
Hoffman has explored Jewish history and culture in her works for adults such as The Museum of Extraordinary Things and The Dovekeepers. She spoke of her own experience reading Anne Frank’s diary as an adolescent in a statement. “It changed the way I looked at the world,” Hoffman said. “It changed the person I was and the person I would become.”
When We Flew Away is scheduled for release on September 17, 2024.
