Annelies — had Anne Frank lived

I'm reading #DavidGillman's #Annelies, a novel that imagines what might have happened had #AnneFrank lived. Don't miss the chilling and heart-shattering segue into imagining Anne Frank willing herself into life in her last moment. But also consider this, especially if you are living in a country where #fascism of one kind or another is becoming normal. Like, say, #NarendraModi's #India.

Or #DonaldTrump's #UnitedStates.

When you read this novel you see how 'defeatable' -- though not easily -- fascism seems. The thirteen-year-old Anne and her friend Bep spend their days in 1944 not thinking really that 'normal' life won't resume. They have girlhood crises, girlhood attachments. Anne is cocky and confident -- by default, sort of -- that things will end up ok. #Normal is normal. The #Hun will beat a retreat. #Normal life will resume. How can it not?

People in India and the US, if you too are sleeping the sleep of the reassured, the optimistic, remember what happened to Anne Frank. Remember, #HannahArendt told us that #evil is #banal. Evil often looks like a man who claims he pulled himself up from humble beginnings. Don't fool yourselves. ACT. NOW. Before your children are dragged off to unimaginable darkness while you plead innocence and business as usual.