Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Sample
  • The Cut Out Girl

  • By: Bart van Es
  • Narrated by: Bart van Es
  • Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (290 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Cut Out Girl

By: Bart van Es
Narrated by: Bart van Es
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

*** 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

©2018 Bart van Es (P)2018 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Last Train cover art
Olive Kitteridge cover art
Anne Frank Remembered cover art
After Auschwitz cover art
The Beacon cover art
Mosaic cover art
The Complete Short Stories cover art
A Tale of Love and Darkness cover art
Romany and Tom cover art

What listeners say about The Cut Out Girl

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    205
  • 4 Stars
    61
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    166
  • 4 Stars
    67
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    197
  • 4 Stars
    45
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The subtlety of family

Apart from the main story which was so shockingly unacceptable to ever have happened the sub context of family - unresolved stuff spanning decades was perfectly captured.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Profound, emotional and disturbing

A must read account of war time experiences on a young child.
An amazing story of recovery.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The hideaways - child victims of WWII

V moving story of the trauma visited on the Jewish community told for me from a wholly new and enlightening perspective.
5 stars!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A compelling listening and revelatory account.

If there is a story beyond Anne Frank, this is one to listen to. I was a 12-year resident of the Netherlands and the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands seems to orbit around the diary Anne Frank, hinting at many events but never too deeply, of collaboration with the Nazis, the Indonesia issue, the life of the war child and after.

This is the story of a girl who lived through it and the post-war issues of the Dutch that have rarely been touched on. The warmth of humanity that nurtured this survival adds to the narrative.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A story for our time

The story of a young Jewish girl of 8 wrenched from her family because her parents sent her into hiding to evade Nazi deportation is heartbreaking and heartfelt because it is written by a younger member of her adopted family. This gives it an immediacy and poignancy that a more detached writer might have had. Mans inhumanity to man is always shocking and continues to this day, but when it is children who are caught up in this it is even more shocking. This is a beautifully written book about an ugly subject which he manages to infuse with humanity. Highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Poignant, personal, and heartfelt

A staggeringly personal account of a life turned upside down by the Holocaust, from a perspective I've never heard before. A remarkable, heart-wrenching story of family, tragedy, survival, and renewal.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A very different kind of Jewish war story

Beautifully read by the author, this is an intimately gentle uncovering of his own family history in a way that illuminates without judgement.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic human story

Historical human story highlighting the best and worst of humanity. Growing up myself in the Hague born from parents who were teenagers during the war it really resonated with me.

The pace of the book was just right and being dyslexic the audible version of the book was perfect for me.

Highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Extraordinarily Graceful

An intimate story, gracefully and respectfully retold. Thank you so much to Lien and to Bart for sharing these details with the world. Lest we should forget.....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent...a personal journey bravely shared

The gift of finding answers to so many questions and unknowns through never giving up the research intellectually but letting the heart speak true is the authors gift...and i thank him for another view into such a painful and misunderstood time in history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!