The World That We Knew

The World That We Knew

A Novel

Alice Hoffman

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK CLUB WINNER
LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

On the brink of World War II, with the Nazis tightening their grip on Berlin, a mother’s act of courage and love offers her daughter a chance of survival.

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. Her desperation leads her to Ettie, the daughter of a rabbi whose years spent eavesdropping on her father enables her to create a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Hanni’s daughter, Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.

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.

“[A] hymn to the power of resistance, perseverance, and enduring love in dark times…gravely beautiful…Hoffman the storyteller continues to dazzle.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Oh, what a book this is! Hoffman’s exploration of the world of good and evil, and the constant contest between them, is unflinching; and the humanity she brings to us—it is a glorious experience. The book builds and builds, as she weaves together, seamlessly, the stories of people in the most desperate of circumstances—and then it delivers with a tremendous punch. It opens up the world, the universe, in a way that it absolutely unique. By the end you may be weeping.” —Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge
“Alice Hoffman’s new novel will break your heart and then stitch it back together piece by piece. It’s about love and loss, about history and the world today, about what happens when man goes against the laws of nature for good and for evil. It’s my new favorite Hoffman book—and if you know how much I adore her writing, that’s truly saying something.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light
“[A] hymn to the power of resistance, perseverance and enduring love in dark times…gravely beautiful…Hoffman the storyteller continues to dazzle.” —The New York Times
"Every page of The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman is a delicious shock. Even the most wrenching moments are rendered with delicacy and beauty. And, c'mon, it's about a 12-year-old trying to escape the Nazis with the help of a golem. How do you not love that?" —Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of Stange Hill and The Fireman
"A spellbinding portrait of what it means to be human in an inhuman world." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An exceptionally voiced tale of deepest love and loss…one of [Hoffman’s] finest. WWII fiction has glutted the market, but Hoffman’s unique brand of magical realism and the beautiful, tender yet devastating way she explores her subject make this a standout.” —Booklist (starred review)
“One of America’s most brilliant novelists since her debut, Property Of, Hoffman uses her signature element of magical realism to tackle an intolerably painful chapter in history. Readers know going in that their hearts will be broken, but they will be unable to let go until the last page.” —Library Journal (starred review)
"Page by page, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, The World That We Knew presents a breathtaking, deeply emotional odyssey through the shadows of a dimming world while never failing to convince us that there is light somewhere at the end of it all. This book feels destined to become a high point in an already stellar career.” —Bookpage (starred review)
"Set in Nazi-occupied France between 1941 and 1944, Hoffman’s latest (after The Rules of Magic) is a bittersweet parable about the costs of survival and the behaviors that define humanity." —Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Alice Hoffman is the bestselling author of more than thirty works of fiction for adults, young adults, and children, including Practical Magic, The Dovekeepers, and The Marriage of Opposites. Born in New York City in 1952 and raised on Long Island, she is known for blending realism with magic, and in much of her work that sensibility is entwined with Jewish history, memory, and moral questions.

Her most direct engagement with Jewish history comes in a cluster of historical novels. The Dovekeepers (2011) reimagines the siege of Masada in 70 CE through four women who take refuge on the mountain, centering female voices in an episode usually told through male heroism. The Marriage of Opposites (2015) tells the story of Rachel Pissarro, the mother of the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, growing up in the Sephardic Jewish community of St. Thomas. The World That We Knew (2019) follows a young girl in Berlin and the people who protect her during the Holocaust, drawing on Jewish folklore, including the legend of the golem, to explore survival, loss, and resistance. The Museum of Extraordinary Things (2014) brings Jewish immigrant life in early twentieth-century New York to the page, set against the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Her young adult novel Incantation (2006) portrays a Converso family hiding their faith during the Spanish Inquisition, introducing younger readers to the history of crypto-Jews. Throughout, Hoffman returns to recurring concerns that resonate with Jewish tradition: the endurance of memory, the ethical weight of rescue and witness, the bonds of family and community, the pain of exile and displacement, and the persistence of hope in the face of persecution. Her storytelling often echoes the oral tradition of folktale and midrash, treating the magical and the historical as companions rather than opposites.

Hoffman lives in Boston and Florida. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages.

You may also like