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Digital Audiobook
The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es

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The Cut Out Girl

Author
Bart van Es
Narrator
Bart van Es
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date
2 August 2018
Run Time
8 hours 49 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Genre
Memoirs, Autobiography: historical, political and military, The Holocaust, Second World War, European history, Family history, tracing ancestors, Far-right political ideologies and movements

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What to expect

*** WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 ***

WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2018

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Cut Out Girl written and read by Bart van Es.

'A masterpiece of history and memoir' Evening Standard

'Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting' The Times

Little Lien wasn't taken from her Jewish parents - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why.

His account of tracing Lien and telling her story is a searing exploration of two lives and two families. It is a story about love and misunderstanding and about the ways that our most painful experiences - so crucial in defining us - can also be redefined.

'Luminous, elegant, haunting - I read it straight through' Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

'Deeply moving. Writes with an almost Sebaldian simplicity and understatement' Guardian

'Remarkable, deeply moving' Penelope Lively

Critics Review

  • Astonishing. Van Es has created a masterpiece of history and memoir, concluding on a note of reconciliation, hope and great love

    Evening Standard

  • An extraordinary, harrowing story of loss, survival and love

    Guardian

  • Deeply moving, this is a remarkable memoir

    Sunday Times

  • Powerful . . . extraordinary

    Irish Times

See more reviews
  • Brought to life with family photographs and diary entries that add further impact to Lien's harrowing memories and testimony - this deeply affecting and fascinating story is guaranteed to haunt you

    Sunday Mirror

  • Remarkable - the story of one traumatic childhood, deeply moving, and told with great dexterity, allowing the wisdoms of today to run parallel with the absorbing narrative of wartime events

    Penelope Lively

  • Compassionate and thoughtfully rendered, the book is both a memorable portrait of a remarkable woman and a testament to the healing power of understanding. A complex and uplifting tale

    Kirkus

  • A nuanced, moving, and unusual "hidden child" account

    Publishers Weekly

  • Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting

    The Times Book of the Week

  • Fascinating, beautifully written. Van Es carefully salvages Lien's story and creates a deeply moving and complex book about war, atrocity and human suffering

    The Oldie

User Reviews

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Details
Author
Bart van Es
Narrator
Bart van Es
Duration
8 hours 49 minutes
Release Date
2 August 2018
ISBN
9780241985090
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Genre
Memoirs, Autobiography: historical, political and military, The Holocaust, Second World War, European history, Family history, tracing ancestors, Far-right political ideologies and movements

Synopsis

*** WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 ***WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2018Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Cut Out Girl written and read by Bart van Es. 'A masterpiece of history and memoir' Evening Standard'Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting' The TimesLittle Lien wasn't taken from her Jewish parents - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why.His account of tracing Lien and telling her story is a searing exploration of two lives and two families. It is a story about love and misunderstanding and about the ways that our most painful experiences - so crucial in defining us - can also be redefined.'Luminous, elegant, haunting - I read it straight through' Philippe Sands, author of East West Street'Deeply moving. Writes with an almost Sebaldian simplicity and understatement' Guardian'Remarkable, deeply moving' Penelope Lively

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