The Cut Out Girl

A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found: Winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award

By: Bart van Es

Narrated by: Bart van Es

*** 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

Critic reviews

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

An extraordinary, harrowing story of loss, survival and love

Deeply moving, this is a remarkable memoir

Powerful . . . extraordinary

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remarkable story

Rarely do I finish a book and think my time has been so well spent. Beautifully written and narrated by the author, this is such a compelling story. This is all the more remarkable as this genre is possible overpopulated.

Reality, in the past, Jewish murder....

Most of us, cannot, even begin to understand or comprehend. Heartbreaking to hear and imagine and visualize. So brave to tell this story after the hurt and bruising and heartache....