The World That We Knew

I can never savor an Alice Hoffman book because they are so engaging and i love the characters so much I rapidly complete them. The best I can do is to read them over and over. If you read Alice Hoffman I need say no more. If you dont usually read her – start now. Read every single book she ever wrote. You wont be sorry. You will be touched by magic!

I love Alice Hoffman. Ive read every book shes written. I so wanted to love this book but it was so dark and so miserable, that I just couldnt get into it. The holocaust was not amusing but Ive read books before that focused on this horrific time in history and loved them. This one just made me sad. And it was actually a tedious read.

The World That We Knew is the twenty-eighth stand-alone novel by best-selling American author, Alice Hoffman. By 1941, life is difficult and dangerous for Jews living in Berlin. Widow Hanni Kohn knows they must escape, but her mothers paralysis means she cant leave. To send her beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Lea alone to family in Paris would be folly, so she uses her last resort, precious family jewels, to pay for a protector.

Ettie is the eldest daughter of a rabbi, and has surreptitiously absorbed his teachings and rituals. When her mother unreservedly refuses to help Hanni, Ettie claims to know how to create a golem. Her price: passage on the night train to Paris for her sister Marta and herself. The golem that the women create is unlike any other: a woman whose only mission is to keep Lea safe. But a golem which exists too long becomes too powerful, and when Lea later learns what she must ultimately do, she is torn.

In Paris, Lea and her cousin, Ava join the household of Professor Andre Levi, whose maid, Marianne, has just abandoned her post to return to her father on his farm. Avas powers allow her to easily fill the role, but her surveillance of Lea cannot prevent the close connection that forms between her and young Julien Levi, no matter who disapproves. But Paris, too, is becoming unsafe for Jews, and Ava removes Lea to another shelter. Lea barely has time to implore Julien Stay alive. Who knows if they will ever see each other again.

This is a story that spans the years of the Second World War and ranges from Berlin to Paris to several parts of country France. Information about the golem and other mystical aspects is seamlessly integrated into the narrative. The cast of characters is not small, but many of them connect and reconnect, if only fleetingly. These represent the many real-life brave, generous, ordinary people who had a myriad of reasons to help the persecuted and resist the oppressor.

The circumstances of minor characters are often detailed using a small vignette of their lives. Where they encounter Ava, Hoffman uses the golems power of knowledge to note the fate of their loved ones and she frequently takes the opportunity to include the staggering statistics about the incarceration and death of those persecuted by the Nazi regime. To make it more interesting, she throws her characters the occasional dilemma.

Of course, among the many deaths, Hoffman realistically does not spare all of her protagonists for a Hollywood happy-ever-after. But rather than concentrating on atrocities, Hoffman makes this a moving and uplifting tale by showcasing those kind and charitable characters, giving them a starring role. Readers should be ready for some lump-in-the-throat moments. A stirring and thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon and Schuster

As much as I read, I rarely leave a review, but I feel compelled to write about The World We Knew. Dark, yes, the time was very dark. Mystical, for certain, Ava is a creation of mysticism and love. At times, its a bit hard to keep track of whos who , but in all it was definitely worth persevering. I have wavered between being a fan of Ms. Hoffman and other times feeling she is off the rails – if youve ever felt that- give this one a read. Now I need to go back to others I dismissed.

In Germany, 1941, Hanni Kohn realizes that she wont be able to escape the country with her daughter without sinning against her confined mother Bobeshi. That is how Hanni ends up visiting a rabbis home to convince his wife to plead a cause on her behalf: to create a golem to steer Hannis daughter, Lea, to safety all throughout the war years. The rabbis wife refuses, but her daughter does the task for a fee; she creates a golem, a female one they name Ava.

Ava and Lea escape Berlin with forged papers for the apparent safety of a relatives home in Paris, but soon the horrors follow; Paris is no longer a safe haven for Jews, national or foreign. When all the Jews of Paris are rounded up in two-days time, and confined to a velodrome with fate unknown, Ava and Lea must escape once again, but where to, when the entire continent has been seized by violence?

Heartbreaking and lyrical, The World That We Knew is a starkly original take on the well-trodden topic of World War II, taking, as starting points, elements of Russian and Jewish folklore to underscore the plight of the errand children of WWII in a story that is fresh and haunting in equal measure. Just because the novel is relatively light on horrors doesnt mean that the audience is spared details of the fast descent into madness occurring in Germany and France in the 1940s, of the humiliations and tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. We get a glimpse, that not because of its briefness loses its intensity, of the events leading to the roundup of Jewish families at Vel dHiver in Paris, summer 1942, and the ultimate fates of those confined. Through various characters, male and female, we are also treated to the way ordinary people became extraordinary by resisting violence in whatever form they could.

By using a creature steeped in myth, Alice Hoffman subtly explores profound questions such as whether it is possible to cheat death, what makes us human, how to remain human in an inhumane world, who to trust when everyone around is a potential enemy, and who to trust with caring for a loved one when one is prevented from doing so. In The World That We Knew, Alice Hoffman makes us ponder about the big and the small, about love and how to express it, about being extraordinary in small ways. All these quandaries she has posed with a light touch, a firm hand, and lyricism to spare.

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