Anna Van Houten

Anna Van Houten is the daughter of Peter Van Houten, the writer of An Imperial Affliction. Anna was said to be the inspiration behind her namesake, the female lead of AIA.

When Hazel and Augustus were in Amsterdam, Hazel had worn a shirt with the quote;  ' Ceci n'est pas une pipe', to which Peter Van Houten commented that it reminded him of Anna. Near the end of the book, Van Houten explained to Hazel that Anna had died of cancer several years ago.

Sometime when she was very young, she acquired the blood cancer Leukemia. It quickly extinguished her life; she had died at only age 8.

Appearance
Anna's physical appearance is not described clearly other than the fact that she wears Chuck Taylors and dark jeans, which Hazel points out when she is getting dressed to meet Peter Van Houten in Amsterdam.

Peter Van Houten
Anna's beloved father who stayed with her till the end. He says, "She suffered beautifully. Will never be beatified," when made to speak of his lost daughter. When Anna died he wrote the book An Imperial Affliction, the main protagonist having been based heavily upon Anna. He later moved to Amsterdam to forget his past and drank copious amounts of alcohol in order to cope with his grief at his daughter's loss.

Trivia

 * The T-Shirt Hazel wears says, 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' which literally means "this is not a pipe." It means that the pipe on the shirt is not an actual pipe but merely a drawing of one. It can be inferred that Anna was a smart and intellectual girl.
 * After Gus's funeral, Van Houten gets into Hazel's car and tells her (after saying many other things that Hazel doesn't understand and gets angry at) that his daughter died twenty-two years ago, at the age of eight. This means that if she were still alive she would have been at least thirty years old.