Naomi Weisman is a Canadian, Australian and mother of three, who loves to ramble with her dog, cook for family and friends, and laugh whenever possible.
I have read quite a few of Alice Hoffman’s books. My favorite until now has been The Dovekeepers, but I loved the Magic Trilogy as well. Practical Magic was turned into a movie with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock several years ago, and I loved it at the time.
Hoffman often uses a style of writing known as mystical realism, which focuses on the real-world implications of a magical phenomenon. Her mixture of mystical with historical fiction speaks to me. The magic she infuses into her stories is so convincing that it leaves me feeling that there might be a little magic in the world after all.
The World That We Knew is a spellbinding portrayal of what it means to be human in an inhuman world. It is a story that explores love in many different forms, including the love between a mother and child, the love between sisters, and even first love, all in the middle of a war zone.
Set in 1941 Berlin, we are introduced to Hanni Kohn and her daughter Lea as they try to navigate through the tyranny of being Jewish in an inhospitable environment. Hanni loves her daughter beyond measure and has tried to keep their little family together, but she cannot see a way for them to stay together. So, she decides to save her from what she sees as the inevitable in the only way she can imagine.
Hanni enlists the help of a prominent rabbi’s daughter, who has studied the more mystical aspects of her father’s trade, to help her create a companion for her daughter, a creature that is made specifically to see her daughter safely over the border into Switzerland and away from the Nazis. This creature is known as a Golem. Ava, the Golem, is beautiful, strong, and resourceful but seemingly without a soul.
Lea, Ava, and the rabbi’s daughter Ettie spend the war doing their best to survive, all while working in the Resistance to save others. They come of age quickly after their childhoods were stolen from them by circumstance. The people they meet along the way add immensely to the adventure of reading this book, exemplifying how love and courage can save us all.
The harrowing experiences that they go through will have you catching your breath, weeping, and pondering deeper meaning as you turn each page. Hoffman asks us to examine what it means to be human, what a soul is, and most importantly, how do we judge who is deserving of our humanity?
I realize this sounds very heavy, but it is a page-turner nonetheless. I could not put this book down. I finished it three days ago, and the characters and the questions are still front and center in my mind.
Have you read anything by this author before? Let me know what you think in the comments!
READ MORE > Nomi's Pics, Rambler Cafe Blog.
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