Title: The World That We Knew
Author: Alice Hoffman
Published: October 1st 2019
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Pages: 384
Genres: Fiction, Historical
RRP: $29.99
Rating: 3 stars
In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual 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.
Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she’s destined to be.
What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never ending.
Review:
From the New York Times Bestselling author of The Dovekeepers comes, The World That We Knew, a symbolic story situated in World War II. Alice Hoffman’s latest provides an alternative spin on this dark chapter in our world history. The World That We Knew is a vision piece that ties in threads of magical realism, fantasy and belief. This novel will be sure to gently remind you about the power of the human spirit, in a time of great adversity.
Beginning in Berlin, a city divided by war in 1941, a woman named Hanni must commit the ultimate sacrifice. Hanni has to send her dear twelve year old daughter away from the encroaching Nazi regime. A powerful young woman named Ettie will offer Hanni’s daughter the ultimate salvation, in the unusual form of a golem, a mystical creature of sworn protection. Together, the lives of Lea, Ettie, and the golem creature named Ava, become irrevocably linked in this fight of survival. The World That We Knew is a story that awakens the soul, it reminds us of the pure light in the war, along with the moments of utter despair. It is about the realms of belief, between the mortal world and the unknown. Love, survival, endurance and belief prevail in this new tale from Alice Hoffman.
The World That We Knew is tale that intrigued me from the onset. I am always hunting the World War II genre for alternative, along with hidden aspects of this tumultuous time in our past. It seems that Alice Hoffman has conjured up a very different story of the war, that is tinged with themes of fantasy, magical realism and symbolism. It requires a creative mind and a reader who is quite happy to throw all sense of grounded truth away to fully embrace the intent of The World That We Knew.
What I admired about The World That We Knew was the strong and informed depiction of World War II and the Holocaust experience. This book travels from Germany to France, and it provides the reader with a very forthright approach to the war. Hoffman doesn’t sugar coat anything and I was moved by what I read. I was also angered and I had hope that the focal characters in this novel would make it to the other side.
The narrators of this novel are well selected. Their voices are compelling and the reader is able to feel connected to their welfare. At times I felt like this was a classic coming of age story, which unveils under the backdrop of war. The interactions between the characters draw you in and Hoffman has devised plenty of compelling character dynamics to appeal to a wide audience.
My downfall The World That We Knew is probably the feature aspect that attracts so many readers to Hoffman’s work, including this one. I am not a lover of the magical realism genre and the fantasy elements didn’t attach me to this novel. I could see the appeal for those who are willing to suspend their belief for the good of this story, but it didn’t carry this one over the line for me.
If you are able to cast rational thinking aside and open your mind to a very imaginative take on the World War II experience, I would easily recommend The World That We Knew to you.
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman was published on 1st October 2019 by Simon & Schuster Australia. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
To learn more about the author of The World That We Knew, Alice Hoffman, visit here.
*I wish to thank Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
