This has apparently been out since October, but I'm just hearing about it now. And it's only available in German, as far as I know.
Written by Mirjam Pressler -- familiar to Anne Frank enthusiasts as the editor of the newest edition of the Diary, and as it's Dutch-German translator -- with help from Bernd Elias's wife, Gerti Wiedner, this book, called Grüße und Küsse an alle: Die Geschichte der Familie von Anne Frank (Greetings and Kisses to All: The History of the Family of Anne Frank), is described as a comprehensive history of Anne Frank's family, presenting us with snapshots from other points in history than the one we tend to associate with the family Frank. We get sketches of a boy who would grow up to become Anne Frank's great-great grandfather, living in Frankfurt's notorious ghetto, the Judengasse, and the relative who, according to the book at least, became Germany's first Jewish professor. There are also some wartime and postwar scenes of the Frank family, which by then had been scattered to several countries. And reportedly a great deal of previously unpublished photos and facsimiles throughout, which I'm really looking forward to seeing.
Having not read it myself yet, I can't speak to anything beyond the mostly positive summaries and reviews I've seen online. But it looks promising and I think I'll end up buying it soon. I can't help thinking of the downside, though, which is: it only covers the better-known half of Anne frank's family tree -- Otto's side (maybe because there were more close survivors -- who knows?) -- further obscuring the history of her mother's forgotten family, the Holländers, which will have to wait for another book to come along before it can be brought to life.
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