The World we Knew

I love Alice Hoffman's books and read them whenever I can. Alice Hoffman has written a  story that we all need to read. Many of the dark forces that lead to WW2 are once again creeping over the world. This is not just another story about WW2 and the horrors of the Holocaust. It is the story of hope and love that succeeds because Ms. Hoffman has written a story that will capture your heart. She makes you want to feel what she is writing about and to care about what happened. The story starts in Berlin when everything is becoming difficult for the Jews. People are disappearing and life is becoming unbearable. A mother, desperate to save her daughter  Lea from the Nazi's, seeks help from a renowned rabbi. However, it is his daughter. Ettie offers her a solution and together with Ettie's sister, they create a  mystical Jewish creature a special golem which they name Ava. Ava's job is to protect Lea "as a mother would ". Her act is truly a gift and hope for the future. The four girls leave Berlin and head to France, where they believe that they will be safe. The world that they are in is torn apart by forces of evil that have been unleashed by the Nazi's.  As the horrors get worse Ava's job becomes more urgent.  Love and hate, hope and despair exist in the same house and Ava must find a way to fulfill her charge. Ava is mystical and speaks the language of the birds and fish and all things in nature. Ava knows what will happen and she manages to keep Lea safe but she cannot stop the horrors going on around them. Throughout the book, people resist, pay the price, fall in love and die. Ms. Hoffman weaves the natural world into the story in a mystical way. Ava is more a part of that world than the human world and her story is beautiful! The story ends with hope and love. I wanted to keep on reading, I wanted to know more of how the future would be for the characters that she created. I also want to believe that the things that happened can never happen again anywhere in the world.