Although seemingly real, An Imperial Affliction is a fictitious book created by John Green to add to the plot. Peter Van Houten, the 'writer' of the non-existent novel that Hazel and Gus fall in love over, is a crucial character in The Fault in Our Stars. Van Houten, the father of Anna Van Houten, wrote An Imperial Affliction which was inspired by his daughter. Anna, who was only 6 years old, was diagnosed with rare blood cancer, and in her short life she created a charity called 'The Anna Foundation for People with Cancer Who Want to Cure Cholera'. The book ends unfinished, assuming that Anna passed while writing or became too sick to continue. After dealing with the death of his only daughter, Van Houten became a non-social alcoholic, which is the state that Hazel and Gus met him in. The reclusive attitude of Van Houten was what made his assistant, Lidewij, resign and also what made Hazel and Gus give up on trying to pursue the novel that they loved.
This blog has been created as an independant final project for a grade 11 university class. I chose to create my blog about 'The Fault in Our Stars' because I felt that the novel highlights specific viewpoints and beliefs that are very uncommon to teenagers, and the novel shows that life changing circumstances can change a persons vision and the way they interpret things, especially at a young age. This blog does contain spoilers, so if you have not finished reading the book, I would suggest that you do so previous to reading my blog.