The World That We Knew Pdf is a Historical Fiction and Magical Realism novel set in the World War II era and written By Alice Hoffman. In 1941, during humanity’s darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman.
The World That We Knew Book Summary
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.
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About Alice Hoffman Author Of The World That We Knew Pdf Book
Alice Hoffman Author of this enthralling Fantasy novel- The World That We Knew Pdf the is an author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Marriage of Opposites; The Red Garden; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; The Dovekeepers; Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and the Practical Magic series, including Practical Magic; Magic Lessons; The Rules of Magic, a selection of Reese’s Book Club; and The Book of Magic. She lives near Boston.
The World That We Knew pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; First Edition (September 24, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1501137573
- ISBN-13 : 978-1501137570
- Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #89,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #147 in Jewish Historical Fiction
- #887 in Occult Fiction
- #6,275 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,021 ratings
The World That We Knew Book Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars a holocaust tale+magic
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 19, 2022
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I was unfamiliar with golems going into this novel (not to be confused with Gollum from Lord of the Rings). It was interesting (and I researched it further). I enjoyed the varied view points and how the lives inter-twined as well as learning about the Holocaust in France.
5.0 out of 5 stars “Luminous” is so overused in Reviews, but this book is LUMINOUS
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2020
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I stayed up very late reading Alice Hoffman’s The World that We Knew. I finished the book at 1 am. I couldn’t stop.
The book is beautiful. Impeccably researched, and deeply moving. The magic realism works perfectly, and gave me such a visual and emotional sense of time and place that in the moment I believed that animals can talk and golems do exist. The mothers’ sacrifices in order to save their children made me weep with abandon, because I’m a mother, and there is no doubt in my mind I would have done the same.
The French government under de Gaulle wanted to bury the atrocities committed by the Vichy government during the war, simply to restore honor and patriotism to France after this calamity. Yes, some collaborators were punished, and harshly, but most were not. For the rest of their lives, certainly while I was child going to school in Paris and hanging around in the streets of my neighborhood, evil talk always followed these people around. They were shunned and whispered about. But they were not punished. Everyone in France would tell you that they’d been in the Resistance, but it was not true. I did meet some serious partisans, who were honored and medalled by the government. One was Madeleine, from le Mans, a decorated partisan, who had crawled through snow in a white dress to help downed American and British pilots. Her eyes would light up and she’d yell out a few expressions in English, like, “Hey there, gorgeous!” the only English she knew, which she had learned from the pilots.
I was born in Paris 15 years after the end of WW2 and the Nazi occupation was still fresh on people’s minds. I knew people who had collaborated; I knew people who had been in the Resistance; I knew people who had fled; Jewish children who’d survived. My mother had a friend, Riva, who was only a girl when she came home from a weekend away and found her entire family had been deported. She never saw any of them again. A neighbor took her in and she survived. Riva was the first to dance at any party at our house, the first to laugh and sing. But she was also the first to get drunk and then she would collapse into a chair in a heap of tears. I will never forget any of this. These people shaped my life, my understanding of evil, and my commitment to fight against racism and fascism.
History repeats itself because people don’t learn, and also people don’t know their history. I read a recent poll that most American students don’t even know about the Holocaust. This is unacceptable. And that is why this book is so important, especially now. That is why you must all read it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A HOLOCAUST STORY LIKE NO OTHER…
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 28, 2021
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A beautifully written book, one that I read in one sitting, so captivated was I by its dark turn and mystical elements. It almost immediately reminded me of a dark fairytale, the kind that could sometimes be found in those compiled by folklorist Andrew Lang in his color coded fairy books.
I was, therefore, gratified to see that at the conclusion of this book, the author lists additional reading for those who wish to know more about the history that she explores in her novel. Among the many books that she lists as relevant, one in particular caught my attention, Andrew Lang, Ed. The Blue Fairy Book, Dover Editions (1965).
This story begins in Berlin, Germany in 1941, during World War ll. It is a Germany where the Nazis reign supreme, and the Jewish population is at its mercy. A mother decides to save her young daughter, Lea, by whatever means necessary. To this end, she secures the help of Ettie, a feisty rabbi’s daughter. Thus, a mystical creature from Jewish lore, called a golem, is created. This creature, named Ava, is charged with one mission, that of protecting Lea above all else.
To that end, Lea’s mother sends them all on a train to Paris, their fates to be forever intertwined. Ettie’s trip is derailed midway with grave consequences, while Lea and Ava continue on. What they all encounter, as well as the changes that they undergo during the duration of the war, serves to keep the reader riveted to the pages of this engrossing novel. It is a Holocaust story like no other. The author takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through the portals of good and evil with an overlay of the breathtakingly mystical.
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