Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The World That We Knew
Alice Hoffman
Review by Priscilla Comen
The World That We Knew
Alice Hoffman
Review by Priscilla Comen
The World That We Knew, by Alice Hoffman, is the story of Hanni. It’s set in Berlin in 1941 when Hanni sees a German soldier attacking her daughter, Lea. Hanni kills the Nazi with her sewing shears and knows she must find a way to protect her daughter. She cuts the cloth of her bloody skirt and burns it. She knows what she must do. Hundreds of Jews are disappearing every day.
Hanni goes to the Rabbi’s house. When he can’t see her, she talks with his daughter, Ettie. Together, they make a golem out of unspoiled earth. Ettie knows what to do as she has watched her father, the Rabbi teach his students. They need water, fire, earth, and sky. They name her Ava. Author Hoffman received an MA in creative writing from Stanford and has written over thirty novels, many about the Jewish people. She knows her subject and tells it well.
Hanni exchanges her mother’s jewelry for visas to France and identity papers for Lea and Ava, the golem. When they arrive at the train bound for Paris, Ettie joins them with her sister, Marta. Ettie tells Ava not to bow before her, just to act like a normal woman. Ava is learning.
The Germans stop the train to check visas. Ettie fears their visas look fake. She grabs Marta and they run from the train. Marta is shot dead. Ettie keeps going, sobbing. Ava must stay with Lea as she has been instructed. This magical story can not save everyone. When Lea and Ava arrive in Paris, they go to their cousin’s house, the Levis. Fourteen year old Julien greets them and gives them plums. He and Lea smile at one another in a pact against adults. Ettie has now changed her persona. She is now Nicole Duval, and works in a café. She has carved an M on her arm so she will always remember her sister Marta. In Paris, Lea spends her days reading next to Julien in the Levi’s library. Julien takes Lea on a tour of Paris. Ava follows them. Two German soldiers tell Lea to come to them. Ava takes care of them.
Victor, the older Levi brother, joins the resistance. Ettie drives with him in a stolen car to the countryside to an abandoned farm house. Jean, Arno, Marianne, and Bettina are there. The men go off. Bettina shows Ettie how to forge identification documents. Victor is badly burned when a bomb explodes near him. Marianne agrees to help to guide refugee children over the mountains to neutral Switzerland. Victor shows up at Marianne’s house after he is burned. A heron follows Lea and Ava. Ava and the heron dance in the moonlight. Author Hoffman uses a lot of magic combined with realism in her novels. It is amazing.
Lea and Ava arrive at a convent that shelters Jewish children. Julien and his parents are rounded up by the French police and taken to the huge French stadium in Paris with thousands of other Jews. This is historically correct. Julien’s father gives his gold watch to their former gardener who allows Julien to leave the stadium. Julien finds Victor and Marianne on her father’s farm. Victor drives Julien to a school where children are taught to survive in the woods. He teaches mathematics, and they feel safe. But one day, the Germans come in trucks and take everyone away to concentration camps. Julien hides in a shed in the garden. The heron carries messages between Lea and Julien in a tube on its leg. In the winter it lives on a black sand beach where it is warm. Ava misses him. Can she have this human emotion? Author Hoffman makes the reader care about her characters.
Find this fantastic story in the fiction room with Hoffman’s other books in your Mendocino Community Library.
Hanni goes to the Rabbi’s house. When he can’t see her, she talks with his daughter, Ettie. Together, they make a golem out of unspoiled earth. Ettie knows what to do as she has watched her father, the Rabbi teach his students. They need water, fire, earth, and sky. They name her Ava. Author Hoffman received an MA in creative writing from Stanford and has written over thirty novels, many about the Jewish people. She knows her subject and tells it well.
Hanni exchanges her mother’s jewelry for visas to France and identity papers for Lea and Ava, the golem. When they arrive at the train bound for Paris, Ettie joins them with her sister, Marta. Ettie tells Ava not to bow before her, just to act like a normal woman. Ava is learning.
The Germans stop the train to check visas. Ettie fears their visas look fake. She grabs Marta and they run from the train. Marta is shot dead. Ettie keeps going, sobbing. Ava must stay with Lea as she has been instructed. This magical story can not save everyone. When Lea and Ava arrive in Paris, they go to their cousin’s house, the Levis. Fourteen year old Julien greets them and gives them plums. He and Lea smile at one another in a pact against adults. Ettie has now changed her persona. She is now Nicole Duval, and works in a café. She has carved an M on her arm so she will always remember her sister Marta. In Paris, Lea spends her days reading next to Julien in the Levi’s library. Julien takes Lea on a tour of Paris. Ava follows them. Two German soldiers tell Lea to come to them. Ava takes care of them.
Victor, the older Levi brother, joins the resistance. Ettie drives with him in a stolen car to the countryside to an abandoned farm house. Jean, Arno, Marianne, and Bettina are there. The men go off. Bettina shows Ettie how to forge identification documents. Victor is badly burned when a bomb explodes near him. Marianne agrees to help to guide refugee children over the mountains to neutral Switzerland. Victor shows up at Marianne’s house after he is burned. A heron follows Lea and Ava. Ava and the heron dance in the moonlight. Author Hoffman uses a lot of magic combined with realism in her novels. It is amazing.
Lea and Ava arrive at a convent that shelters Jewish children. Julien and his parents are rounded up by the French police and taken to the huge French stadium in Paris with thousands of other Jews. This is historically correct. Julien’s father gives his gold watch to their former gardener who allows Julien to leave the stadium. Julien finds Victor and Marianne on her father’s farm. Victor drives Julien to a school where children are taught to survive in the woods. He teaches mathematics, and they feel safe. But one day, the Germans come in trucks and take everyone away to concentration camps. Julien hides in a shed in the garden. The heron carries messages between Lea and Julien in a tube on its leg. In the winter it lives on a black sand beach where it is warm. Ava misses him. Can she have this human emotion? Author Hoffman makes the reader care about her characters.
Find this fantastic story in the fiction room with Hoffman’s other books in your Mendocino Community Library.