The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

The year 2013 was chronicled in a diary kept by Hendrik Groen (the author’s pseudonym), the self-proclaimed “inmate” of an assisted living senior community in the Netherlands. In the resulting book, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old (Grand Central/Hachette, 2017), each day has some description of the prior day’s goings-on. “If I sound like an old grump, isn’t that what this diary is for?” he wrote. “It lets me gripe and moan from time to time, and it doesn’t bother anyone.” He came to rely on these daily reflections at first because they helped to keep his mind sharp.