"Among the thousands of stories written about World War II and the fate of the Jews, none is more widely known, or more cherished, than that of Anne Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl, first published in Dutch in 1947 as Het Achterhuis and since translated into more than 60 languages, is today an international literary classic.... The question is: Why? Prose believes the answer lies in the book's artistry.... An accomplished fiction writer herself, Prose appreciates Frank's observational powers and skill in developing memorable characters. As is well known, Frank not only wrote but rewrote her diary, substantially editing many entries with an eye to publishing her book as a novel after the war. Prose's commentaries on the changes wrought by these revisions are often illuminating.... To numbers of people, though, Frank's story probably acquires its most lasting impressions elsewhere—not from the pages of the diary but from the Goodrich and Hackett dramatization and George Stevens's Hollywood film.... Unfortunately, this thinner, more mindless version has come to prevail as the 'real' Anne Frank for many, who extract from her story sentimentalized notions of tolerance and understanding, caring and compassion. To some degree, Prose sympathizes with them. But she suggests that, admirable as these ideals are, to reduce Frank's life and death to facile 'messages' of goodness, hope and inspiration is to read her less than faithfully and, thus, to remain still at a distance from one of the 20th century's best known, but not yet fully understood, figures."—Washington Post Book World