What People are Saying!

• The Star Tribune calls The Clean Daughter “Luminous” and “Complicated”.

• Deb Marquart calls it “Masterfully Written,” “Rich and complex.”

• Dr Jessie Voigts says, “The Clean Daughter is hands down, the best memoir and intercultural book I’ve ever read!”

• The National Association of Memoir Writers calls The Clean Daughter, “Brilliant and deeply moving.”

• Collegeville Institute says, “Kandel’s warmth and keen insights make this memoir unforgettable.”

“When Jill Kandel married Johan, a man from the Netherlands, she never imagined the influence her father-in-law, Izaak, would hold over her life. Beneath his calm demeanor and clerical garb, Izaak carried the wounds of growing up in Nazi- Occupied Holland. Childhood chaos led him to become a man who had all the answers. For everyone. Except himself.

Izaak decided to end his life - while still a primarily healthy man - using legalized euthanasia in the Netherlands. The long tumultuous relationship between daughter-in-law and father-in-law was over. But Kandel couldn’t move on. Ten years later, still exhausted by thoughts of Izaak, she returned to the Netherlands searching for understanding.

The Clean Daughter is a story about building family across cultural, linguistic, and geographical divides. The complicated ways families both destroy and heal one another underpin Kandel’s story of a family held together by tenacity, curiosity, and courage.”