The author of The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen was unknown for some time, but it was later discovered that a librarian, Peter De Smet wrote the Hendrik Groen series. The diary was written originally for a website magazine and has since been translated into over thirty languages.
Hendrik Groen doesn't wallow in his aches and pains, like the other residents of the Amsterdam retirement home where he lives. He is a "brighter side of life" older man who enjoys the warmth of spring, the friendship with his cantankerous friend, Evert and refuses to take himself seriously. Each day brings a little humor either from the newspaper or from a misadventure of his fellow "inmates." In an effort to escape the confines and drudgery of the home, he and some friends form the Old But Not Dead group who take turns in finding a delightful daily excursion.
Not only do the patients not expect to get out of there alive, few pets survive either. With only birds and fish being allowed, a canary was accidentally sucked into a vacuum cleaner and the latter died after a resident disposed of unwanted cake into the fish tank. But Hendrik's motto is Live as if today were your last day.
The residents at the retirement home enjoy little sparks of delight with the upcoming royal family coronation but often bemoan the efforts of the Netherlands government to raise their costs, offer euthanesia and a rumor that they would soon be asking terminally ill patients to donate a kidney. They live in fear of moving to the "other side" - the wing where dementia patients are contained and occasionally escape.
The book is humorous and enticing as many older people have experienced what he is going through or have elderly parents who they've shared experiences with.
