The World That We Knew: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of September 2019: Alice Hoffman's novel is a beautiful union of history and myth in a world gone wrong. As The World That We Knew begins in Berlin in the spring of 1941, Hanni Kohn is left with no choice but to get her 12-year-old daughter, Lea, out of Germany if she has any hope of saving her life. Hanni will do anything to for Lea, even something as dangerous as soliciting the creation of a mystical golem to act as her protector. Ettie is a rabbi's daughter, wise beyond her years, and when Hanni comes to her home pleading for help, Ettie takes matters into her own hands. Ettie, Lea, and the golem they name Ava make their way to Paris, Ava and Lea following one path and Ettie another. Hoffman’s tale of these three lives is one of love and sacrifice, kindness and cruelty, and throughout it all the Angel of Death fills book after book with the names of those murdered by the Nazis. The World That We Knew is exquisite and hopeful, a reminder that even when life as we know it has disappeared, and evil seems to have inexplicably won the upper hand, love will always find a way. --Seira Wilson, Amazon Book Review