I just finished this book last night and I'm still feeling emotional. To be honest, I wasn't overly invested in the book at the beginning as I had trouble connecting the mythical story with the history. However, I'm very glad I hung on because I thought the story was beautiful. The mix of myth/fantasy along with historical fiction was amazing! I really identified with the different romantic and paternal love relationships.

This is the first Alice Hoffman novel that I've ready and I'll certainly be back for more.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!
#theworldthatweknew #netgalley

This book holds so many wonderful touching moments. A tale of three women’s experiences during WWII and is told from a historically rich and mystical perspective. It was so easy to feel connected to the characters and to empathize with their struggles. This story stayed with me long after I finished reading it because it was so well written and I found it hard to leave the world that the author created.
I received a digital copy of this book from #Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I love Alice Hoffman's The Rules of Magic and Faithful and despite not being a fan of magical realism, I found that she just made it work in those two books. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about her latest, The World That We Knew. In The World That We Knew, Hoffman combines Judaic mysticism with the backdrop of the Holocaust. While this was a promising premise, I felt that the characters were a bit flat. Unlike her previous books, I wasn't drawn into the world of these characters nor did I connect with any of them. That being said, this is still an Alice Hoffman book and as such the prose is both lyrical and breathtaking. This is most obvious in the ends where Ava who is not human, but a golem created by a rabbi's daughter, interacts with nature and the world around her. In the end, I wish there was more magic and hope to the stories of these characters. It was definitely darker than her last book, and I do feel that a trigger warning for one of the very early scenes would have been helpful. Not for me, but perhaps for those who are fans of historical novels set during WWII.

Just when I thought I know what to expect from a WWII novel, I come across The World We Knew. Known for novels like Practical Magic, which weaves magic into the real world, Hoffman delivers a novel where magic -- dark, forbidden magic -- is a tool by which a Jewish mother keeps her daughter safe from Nazis. It's a lovely infusion of hope into the bleak reality of war, but more importantly, it also raises questions of how far women are willing to go to protect the ones they love.

The novel follows the life of Lea Kohn, a twelve year old girl escaping Nazi Germany. Her mother Hanni has commissioned a rabbi's daughter Ettie, to create for her a golem, a creature made of clay whose very existence has the single purpose of keeping Lea alive and safe. The catch is that once Lea is safe and no longer in need of protection, she must kill the golem so that it doesn't grow too powerful to control.

The World We Knew is a moving, fiercely emotional novel that practically bursts with love. Along with the love between Lea and her mother, the girl also can't help but grow affectionate towards the golem Ava, who becomes a maternal figure to her during their escape and who therefore becomes almost impossible for Lea to kill. There are moments where Lea sees her mother in Ava, or remembers how much her mother loves her because of something Ava does, and it's absolutely heart-wrenching to read because we know what her mother has sacrificed for Lea's safety. Alongside that is the heron who follows Lea and Ava throughout their journey, who is linked to the golem in some way that is never fully explained, but that feels just as tangible as the bonds between the human characters.

There is also the fierce love between Ettie and her younger sister, whose safety is the reason Ettie agrees to create the golem in the first place, even though such magic is forbidden. Their escape doesn't quite go as planned, and the experience shapes Ettie's determination to help rebel forces take the Nazis down.

Despite its setting in a world filled with hate, the novel's overarching message is that of love. There are many tragic moments throughout, many instances of sacrifice and of fear, but ultimately, we are left with a promise of hope. And even though the literal angel of death makes several appearances -- at one point, unable to see Ava because she is not created by God (I forgot how Hoffman phrases this, but it's beautiful, chilling and heartbreaking all at once) -- the overarching feel is a celebration of life.
While the story is fantastical, kernels of it are rooted in reality. In her letter to the reader, Alice Hoffman writes about a woman who approached her at a book event, wanting her life story to be told. Like Lea, the woman was born Jewish, but was then sent to a convent during World War II to be raised Catholic. Unlike Lea, the woman didn't have an Ava to protect her, and so while she survived the war, her reality is likely a lot bleaker than the story in this novel. 

In that same letter, Hoffman writes, "Fairy tales tell us that we may be lost, we may be forsaken, but there is a path." And perhaps that's why the fairy tale treatment in this novel resonated so much with me. Despite all the horrible stuff happening in the world, Hoffman's world promises a benevolent force protecting you from experiencing anything too horrible. Yet even that reassurance is a complicated one, as it requires much sacrifice and possibly a compromise of one's own values. Like many fairy tales, the hope Hoffman offers is an ambiguous, complex one filled with foreboding. And that, paradoxically enough, makes it feel even more realistic, and therefore possible, much more than an uncomplicated happily ever after would.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an egalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The fact that this was a mix of historical fiction set in WWII which I taught it was about. But, then the mystical part arrived now that took me for a loop, I never know the meaning of what the mystical part means in the story.
I enjoed the story but not the mystical part. I prefered the story about the jewish resistance , their underground network LE SIXIÈME Mouvement that helped children, women, men etc... to cross to Switzerland in the night darkness.
That part of WWII I had no clue that jewish community and sympitizer had a mouvement to help them cross to safety. Overhaul enjoyable read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster UK/Simon & Scuster Canada and Alice Hoffman for an early copy in exchange of an honest review.

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman is part fantasy, part fiction, part history....all good!

 First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Simon and Schuster, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
 

My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

WWII, and it doesn't matter what country, if you are Jewish, you are being hunted.

Hanni Kohn will do anything to keep her 12 year old daughter Lea safe.  Lea must leave Berlin, but Hanni cannot travel with her.  She enlists the help of Ettie, the daughter of a rabbi.  Ettie has learned a lot of the old religion by watching her father.  They create a "golem" out of clay, and water, and air and words.  The golem comes to life and they call her Ava.  She will keep Lea safe on her journey to their distant cousins in France, and continue to keep her safe until the need passes.  

Ettie and her sister Marta also try to escape Berlin on the train, but their VISA's are obviously fake.  They leap from the train, but Marta is killed in the field.  Ettie joins the resistance group to avenge her sister's death.   

The paperwork Lea and Ava present pass inspection.  Having reached their cousins, Lea and Ava take refuge with the Lévi's, although they are not really welcomed.  Viktor Lévi soon leaves to join the resistance, but his younger brother Julien becomes close with Lea.  Unfortunately,  evil is on the brink of finding the Lévi's house, and Ava and Lea move on.  Before they leave, Lea and Julien make a pact to stay alive.

But Lea and Ava and Ettie are still tied together, and they are bound to meet again.  Their journey's take unexpected turns.
 

My Opinions:  

First, let me just say that I love the cover.  Second, this was a little out of my comfort zone, because I rarely read anything about wars or history.  That being said.....this book was amazing.

The characters were wonderful, the writing sublime, and the story heart-breaking and up-lifting all at the same time.  It is about the travesty of war,  about bigotry and hatred, and the atrocities that follow.  It's also about love and sacrifice, bravery and hope...and it's about humanity, which can sometimes be found in strange places.

I loved how the author wove fairy tales and real events.  How she took stories that were handed down from one generation to the next so that they live on.  I worried how she would end this tale, but it was perfect.

Alice Hoffman has now written another epic tale, one that will live on in my mind for a long time to come.  I will never look at a heron the same way again!

First off, you should know that "war stories" are NOT my thing. I really hemmed and hawed about whether I wanted to read this book. While the time and place of the story would normally have me giving it a hard pass, something about it spoke to me and was quite insistent that I do read it. So when I gave it 5 stars, that is saying a lot. I am so glad that I read this book.

The story begins during the rise of the Nazi forces to power. As they gain power and momentum and their agenda becomes better known to the people, widow Hanni Kohn knows she cannot leave, but she also knows that to save her twelve year old daughter Lea, she must send her away. To ensure her safety, she plans to ask a Rabi to create a golem - a magical creature resembling a person but made with earth and clay, to travel with Lea and protect her. In the end, it is the rabi's daughter Ettie that creates the magical creature in order to use Hanni's payment to provide for her own and her sister's escape, for she too knows that to stay is almost certain death. Their creation - named Ava, is mother's love personified.

Lea and her golem protector Ava, head off to France, as does Ettie and her sister. Over time, Lea falls in love and faces a moral and heart rending dilemma, Ava dances with a heron and discovers that she is more than what she was made to be - that she loves deeply though was never intended to, and Ettie becomes a fighter for the resistance. Their paths twist and cross each other as their greater story unfolds, all the while, the angel of death is near.

Despite the horrors of the war, there is definitely a beauty to the story. Hoffman's prose, as always, is stunning. The story is filled with loss, love, sacrifice, determination and survival. The magic strongly based in folklore, the history real, and the characters both believable and likable. The story is heart rending but at the same time heart warming The contrast of immeasurable love against the evil and horrors of the war is powerful and moving.

The World That We Knew is a stunning story that i won't soon forget.

Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for a copy of The world that we knew. This was my first Alice Hoffman book I have read although I loved the film adaptation of Practical magic. Hanni must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazis and persuades Ettie, to create a golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked. I knew this book would be outside my comfort zone, but having come across several golems in literature and recent tv shows, the plot of the book interested me especially as the golem was female.
The story is dark, mystical, depressing, and you will either love it or hate it. There were truly parts of the book I loved; Ava and the heron, Ava/Azriel; I didnt feel something through the whole story though. 3 1/2 stars

This was an extraordinarily satisfying read, but I am a huge Alice Hoffman fan in general. Thankfully, she has not disappointed me yet (and I have read several different themed novels of hers at this point).

This is a novel that takes place on the cusp of World War II, first in Germany, and the final two-thirds of the novel, it takes place in France. It is told from multiple perspectives: young teenage Jewish girls and boys, as well as French resistant people as well. There is a mystical element as well in the novel, which adds a bit of intrigue, but doesn't inundate or ruin the overall novel itself. There are also random facts about the war thrown in when someone gets shipped off, which makes the war itself all the more horrific and relatable. It was such a gripping and emotional story and truly shed light on Holocaust survivors and what they endured as well as what the French people dealt with too. I have read a lot of World War II stories at this point and this one was definitely intriguing and unique in its tale.

A highly recommended novel for any Alice Hoffman fans as well as for those who love the World War II/historical fiction genre.

Thank you NetGalley/Simon & Schuster Canada for my copy and honest review.

I received a complimentary ARC copy of The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada in order to read and give an honest review.

A huge fan of Alice Hoffman I was eager to read "The World That We Knew" and I was not disappointed.  This is a beautifully-written, heartbreaking and poignant story following the lives of Jewish children fleeing the German occupation.

...a hauntingly meaningful story filled with good vs. evil and shows what love, family, loyalty and survival mean during the darkest moments of humanity...

When Hanni Kohn realizes she must send her daughter Lea away to safety from the German occupation she is aware she cannot go with her.  Hanni looks for a suitable escort who would love and protect her daughter the way she would while she must stay to care for her invalid mother.  Desperate she remembers the story of the Golem from Jewish folklore and enlists the help of her local Rabbis daughter, Ettie.  One dark night Ettie, her sister Marta and Hanni break curfew to go to the water and create a Golem named Ava out of the pure river clay. Ava's sole purpose in life is to protect Lea and lead her to safety. In return for creating the Golem, Ettie receives payment and insists that she and her sister be able to join Ava and Lea.  They initially board a train to head to her mother's cousins in Paris and are separated while escaping the Nazi's as they take over the train. Once in Paris, Lea and Ava form strong bonds with the two sons until the Nazi's occupy Paris forcing the children to flee again together. Separated along the way they cross paths with others, creating friendships, sharing bonds and losing people along the way trying to reach safety at the Swiss border. Their stories interconnect and show the resilience of bonds tested by events that would be devastating to adults.  Although the story shows Ava who communes with Angels and can foresee futures, the magic realism doesn't overshadow the story of what the children endure during the Nazi occupation. 

Knowing and having connections with several Holocaust survivors over the years and hearing their stories, Hoffmans' story feels so incredibly real. Showing the holocaust through the eyes of children is gutwrenching but this book was perhaps one of the most emotionally difficult to read was one that will stick with me for a long time. This really is a hauntingly meaningful story filled with good vs. evil and shows what love, family, loyalty and survival mean during the darkest moments of humanity.  I would definitely recommend and beware it's an emotional rollercoaster!

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this book. I loved how all the various characters stories were interwoven -- how the threads came together and separated in different ways. The character of Ava (and her familiar, the heron) was intriguing; as were some of the historical tidbits I gleaned. In addition to its adult readership (lots for book clubs to discuss here), this novel would be an excellent choices for teens interested in the Holocaust and/or World War II.

I just had to force myself to read this story. I have tried a few books by this author before but I think she just isn't one author I like to read.

Hanni Kohn is determined to get her daughter away from the war and the advancing Nazi soldiers.
Enlisting the help of the Rabbis daughter, Hanni has a Golem created whose sole purpose in life is to protect her daughter Lea and lead her to safety.
The book weaves the story of Ettie the Rabbis daughter, Lea and her protector Ava and their determination to survive and avenge those they've lost.

I really liked the premise of this book.
I thought it was a really cool concept, I love magical realism writing and was really excited to read it.
I got into it right away and then somewhere along the way, I kind of lost interest.

While beautifully written there was something about this book that I just couldn't get into.

This book was not what I was expecting but in the best way possible. This was my first Alice Hoffman book and it will not be my last. Her writing style had me captivated! I do enjoy historical fiction but this book was historical fiction with magic realism and I absolutely loved it. It brought light to dark time. This book is based around the World War II era which gets me every time. I loved all of the women in the book because they were so brave and the way their characters were portrayed was perfect. I loved this book so much and would highly suggest it!

I am always amazed when an author takes a known thing, World War II, and turns my perceptions completely backwards. Alice Hoffman weaves Jewish mysticism with love, discovery and the heartbreak of World War II. I knew from the start there would be aching heartbreak and loss in this story but still, the pages flew by as the story unfolded. As each new character is introduced, their lives are woven together. Instead of being bogged down in people and situations, the story seamlessly flows together.
Jewish mysticism tells of a creature that can be created to protect the person he or she is created for, a golem. With this story burning in her mind, a Jewish mother goes on a hunt for her daughter's (Lea) salvation at the beginning of World War II. What she finds is a girl (Ettie) on the verge of womanhood wanting to escape the coming terror. As the years of the war pass, each person Ettie and Lea separately meet have links that draw a web of human experience. Through it all twines the loss and heartbreak World War II always represents.
Alice Hoffman is a gifted writer, I was pulled in from the first page and when the story ended I found myself sad to let them all go. Each character became a friend I didn't want to say goodbye to, wanting to stay involved in their futures. I look forward to enjoying more books by this author. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman is a story of the Holocaust. I think that sometimes you can tell more truths in a fairy tale than you can in a non-fiction book and that is true in this book. It brings to light the goodness and the evil, the hope and the despair that was Berlin and France during World War 2. The story begins in Berlin, Lea’s mother aware that the world is greatly changing and that it is not a safe place for her daughter but unable to abandon her crippled mother she causes a golem to be created to protect her daughter. The golem named Ava is charged with protecting Lea and keeping her safe through the war. They journey to Paris and then to the French countryside over the course of the war. Their story is told in a series of interconnecting tales of love between a parent and their child, between brothers, between sisters and between men and women, and is one of much heartbreak and great hope. I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend reading it. Publishing Date September 24, 2019 #NetGalley #TheWorldWeKnew #AliceHoffman #HolocaustStories #fairytales #SimonandSchuster #Bookstagram #HistoricalFicton

This is the latest release by the successful American author of books such as The Dovekeepers and The Rules of Magic. This one is historical fiction with some magical realism. Set in Germany and France during WWII we follow the lives of several young people desperate to survive and fight against the Nazis. Added to the mix is a 'golem', a woman made out of clay and magic charged with protecting one of the young women. The addition of this magical character adds the question of what it means to be human to the narrative. If you are a fan of historical fiction this is a great read.

The World That We Knew was one of the most beautiful historical fiction books that I've read in awhile now. It wasn't like your regular historical fiction book but this one contained some magical realism. At first I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it because I'm not used to reading that kind of stuff, but it was woven into the story so well that without it, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. The writing in this was nothing short of suburb. Hoffman has a way of really connecting to readers and bringing us into the story and this book proved that. There was multiple POVs, with every character somehow intertwining with one another at some point in their journey. I felt really connected to basically every single one of these characters and was constantly worried about how their fate would turn out. In a time that represented nothing but hatred, horror, death and nothing but the unthinkable, Hoffman managed to write about all of that, but also about the love and how this magical realism can help us survive even the unthinkable times.

Against the backdrop of Nazi occupied Europe, a mother's love spawns a magic that will see a young girl and her companions on a journey through hope and despair, fear and love, death and new life in this heartrendingly beautiful story by Alice Hoffman.
The plight of thousands of Jewish refugees and resistance fighters in Paris and Vichy France is rendered down to it's essence in the story of a young girl and the small band of acquaintances she collects in her flight from Berlin during World War II. It's not a pretty story. People suffer and die, families are torn apart, violence and cruelty sometimes seem destined to win the day, and yet this story is packed full of moments that hold a haunting, heartbreaking beauty and a faith that, through the worst, there are good things that endure; a mother's love, the kindness and generosity of neigbours, the loyalty of friends.
Hoffman's story is not light reading, but it is beautifully written with the kind of attention to detail, both in character development and in the vivid word paintings that allow the scenes to unfold like a movie in your head. This is a book that will touch your heart and linger in your thoughts, long after you close the back cover; a must read.

Magical Realism. Not a genre I had ever explored or even considered until now. I went into The World That We Knew completely blind as I didn't read the synopsis. I requested solely based on the cover and author I kept hearing so much about. This book blew me away! Wow can Alice Hoffman ever write. I was completely absorbed in this beautiful creation and couldn't put it down. Every single character was so well developed, the descriptions were brilliant and the storyline, a major mix of emotions. At times a very difficult and emotional read. I have never read anything like this before, am a huge fan of Historical Fiction and the magical aspect twist was truly fascinating. I'm excited to have a new author to add to my list.

Huge thank you to Simon and Schuster as well as Netgalley for my review copy.