Alice Hoffman, The World That We Knew: A Novel

In Berlin, Hanni Kohn must send her 12-year-old daughter, Lea away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, where his daughter, Ettie, offers hope of salvation by creating a mystical Jewish creature named Ava, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she, 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.