The Hand That Signed the Paper
The Hand That Signed the Paper is a 1994 novel and literary hoax. It was written by Helen Darville, now Helen Dale, and was published under the name Helen Demidenko. The novel tells the story of a Ukrainian family that collaborated with Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. While the novel initially received a positive reception and was the 1995 winner of Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, it eventually became the subject of a heated debate—first over accusations of antisemitism, followed by the revelation that Darville had adopted a false identity to imply that the novel was based on her own family history.
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