The World That We Knew

Author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites, Alice Hoffman, a New York Times bestselling author, tells the story of three unique young women who must act with courage and love to survive in 1941, at humanity's worst hour.

During the period of global transformation in Berlin, Hanni Kohn realizes she had to move her twelve-year-old daughter abroad in order to protect her from the Nazi government. She tracks down a well-known rabbi, but it's his daughter Ettie who offers her a chance at redemption when she crafts a strange and eerie golem, a mythical Jewish creature sworn to keep Lea safe. After Ava is born, she, Lea, and Ettie are all inextricably linked; their destinies are destined to cross and their fates are intertwined.

From Paris, where Lea finds her true love, to a convent in western France renowned for its silver roses, from a school in a village perched on a mountain where three thousand Jews were saved, Lea and Ava journey. Ettie is hiding in the interim, waiting to transform into the fighter she was meant to be.

What does losing your mother entail? To what far would someone go for love? We meet amazing people who lead us on a breathtaking voyage of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a world where love never ends and the Angel of Death is the only obstacle. In a world where evil may be found everywhere.