"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."
RATING 5 STARS
Unbelievably good.
Margot is the heartbreaking, breathtaking story of Margot Frank, Anne Frank’s older sister. The heartbreaking part is knowing that she is dead. That she and her sister and so many other WW2 victims died a horrible death, and should not have. The novel brings light onto what could have been, what should have been, but what never was. And that is what makes it all so sad.
In the book Margot {Margie Franklin} escaped the cattle cars on the way to camp. She ran and never looked back, and made a new life for herself – in secrecy. She is ashamed of who she is and who has become, and finds herself guilty of her sister’s death because of running.
In reality both girls did die just before Germany was liberated from Hitler’s reign.
Margot Frank’s diary was never found, but since Anne’s was she is the only one we really know anything about. And there are several things that happened to Anne Frank that are not mentioned in the diary she wrote during here two year stay in the secret Annex. For instance, in Anne’s diary, we get a feel for what things were like in the Annex, and how they had to hide from the Nazi’s and how that strained or strengthened the family’s previous relationships, but Anne does not speak an awful lot of how things were before she and her family were forced into hiding. There also is not a lot of information on what happened to the girls after they were taken away from their hiding place in Annex to the dreaded cattle cars. We don’t get a lot of information on what it was like for both sisters to be together, but unable to help each other. We have Anne Frank locked into our minds as the young girl who is bright and happy and well fed and healthy and inquisitive and who desperately wants to be movie star and have a life outside of hiding. I have never let my mind go to such places as to imagine Anne being tattooed with a number, shaved, starved, diseased, and shriveled.
And Margot never had her own voice in the first place! Barely even a thought as her sister became known throughout the world.
Jillian Cantor let her mind go there.
And that is what makes this novel so brilliantly beautiful.
When we meet Margie Franklin she is working as a secretary to a handsome lawyer in Philadelphia. She has told no one that she is Jewish, that she is from Germany, or her real name. Even her closest friends, and she swallowed up almost entirely by self doubt and regret. We move with her character through her journey to become whole again. To stop hiding, to stop hiding the tattooed numbers on her arm with her ridiculous sweaters. To be happy. And of course that is what we would have wanted for Margot Frank. Happiness, and the bravery to be her true self, instead of hiding in the shadows.
The characters are absolutely enthralling and lovable, Margie Franklin is so lovable and gives voice to who Margot could have been, had she survived the horrors of war. Some are annoying, but all well meaning and true {even if they don’t fully understand Margie Franklin’s ways}, and even when they blatantly say things that Margie might have taken a bit of offense to had they known her true identity or had she told them anything.
The text, written from Margie’s voice and perspective, is simple but grounded and deep with so much more meaning than what is just on the surface. Which makes the writing all the more lovely. Margie’s voice, I felt, was a true testament to Margot and in keeping her alive just as much as her sister.
Fictitious or not, this book brings to light the reality of the Frank family, the reality of war, and the emotions beyond the ties that bind a family together – even when they are apart. It also brought to life the fact that just because we read Anne’s famous diary doesn’t mean we understand the full story. Or that we ever will. We will never ever really truly KNOW what these sisters went through, or what happened after the family was found that dark night in the Annex. History is defined by the perspective of the person who writes it. And this book is the perfect example of how that can happen.
An easy read, a brilliant story, and a tiny window into the life and heart of Margo Frank,Margot is a must read.