The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old
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  • Published: 22 September 2016
  • ISBN: 9781405925198
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $22.99

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

Formats & editions
Paperback
13 Jul 2017
EBook
25 Aug 2016
Audiobook
22 Sep 2016
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A heart-warming, funny and touching novel that is taking the world by storm

Hendrik Groen may be old, but he is far from dead and isn't planning to be buried any time soon. So he sets out to write an exposé: a year in the life of his care home in Amsterdam, revealing all its ups and downs - not least his new endeavour the anarchic Old-But-Not Dead Club. And when Eefje moves in - the woman Hendrik has always longed for - he polishes his shoes (and his teeth), grooms what's left of his hair and attempts to make something of the life he has left, with hilarious, tender and devastating consequences.
  • Published: 22 September 2016
  • ISBN: 9781405925198
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $22.99
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Also by Hendrik Groen

On the Bright Side
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Praise for The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

A story with a great deal of heart, it pulled me in with its self-deprecating humour, finely drawn characters and important themes. Anyone who hopes to grow old with dignity will have much to reflect on

Graeme Simsion, author of international phenomenon, The Rosie Project

Thoughtful, anxious and gruff... Laced with humour

The Best New Fiction, Mail on Sunday

Amusing [and] wickedly accurate ... I was constantly put in mind of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, another comi-tragedy concerning the tyranny of institutions of the unwanted. Enjoy Groen's light touch but do not be fooled by it. We live in an ageing society. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is a handbook of resistance for our time. ***** FIVE STARS

Daily Express

Funny, tragic and sometimes heart rending

Het Parool

Hendrik Groen is a heart-warming hero

Trouw

With pungent phrasing Groen takes down life in a retirement home. Both charming and hilarious

Leeuwarder Courant

Hendrik Groen is king

Ray Kluun

The tears came streaming down my face. From laughing so hard. I couldn't stop grinning for three days

Ouderenjournaal

Highly entertaining ... a delightful and touching saga of one man's way of coping with old age ... we may assume that Hendrik Groen is a character of fiction. But it is a fiction so closely based on the observation of real life that it is utterly convincing

Daily Express

A joy to read, as much concerned with friendship and dignity as it is with the debilitating effects of aging ... An entertaining and uplifting story of a man in the winter of his days, stoic in the face of bureaucratic nonsense and an unabashed need to wear a nappy. Imagined or not, this is the diary of someone who wants nothing more than to be allowed see out his days with dignity and respect. It's not too much to ask, really, is it?

John Boyne, Irish Independent

Full of off-beat charm and quirky characters

Cathy Rentzenbrink, Stylist

Hendrik pens an exposé of his care home, sets up the Old-But-Not-Dead club and relishes the arrival of a new female resident. This geriatric Adrian Mole made me laugh and think. Terrific

Fanny Blake, Woman and Home