Margot, by Jillian Cantor

Anne Frank.  Her name is synonymous with the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust. Her diary humanized the life of a young girl bursting with effervescence and dreams of the future, only to have them cruelly ripped away at age 15.

But there was another diary written by another sister.  Anne’s older sister, Margot.  The quiet one. The reserved one.  The excellent student. The “paragon of virtue,” as she was called in the family.  The sister whose work camp order prompted their father, Otto, to shuffle the family into the famous “Annex” in the early hours of July 6, 1942.

After their arrest in 1944 and suffering the atrocities of the concentration camps, only Otto Frank survived. He edited and published Anne’s diary in the early 1950s, which became a hit Broadway play and award-winning film, making Anne Frank an icon for all time. 263 Prinsengracht is now the “Anne Frank House,” with over one million visitors per year.

Margot’s diary was lost and never found.

What is known about Margot is brought to life in this respectfully written “what if” novel by Jillian Cantor.

I couldn’t put it down.

What if Margot survived? What if she made her way to America?

Set in 1959, the year the movie The Diary of Anne Frank hit the big screen, Margie Franklin is a quiet woman in her early thirties, working as a legal secretary.  She has no family. She always wears long sleeves. She lives and behaves modestly. She lives with fear and guilt. She lives a lie every day. She has a secret.

If you are someone who has always been intrigued by the Anne Frank story, as I have, you will greatly enjoy this novel. Told entirely from Margot’s perspective, you sense her daily conflict with wanting to be seen for who she is, yet still being “the quiet one.”  Her inner voice is very authentic.

Appropriate for any age.  I highly recommend it.

9.5 out of 10 stars