The World That We Knew - Alice Hoffman - 5*

[Elise]

In 1940s Berlin, Hanni Kohn knows that she has to send her twelve-year-old daughter Lea to safety. She hears of a rabbi who can create a mstical creature called a golem, and his daughter Ettie helps her to create Ava, whose sole purpose is to keep Lea safe. So Ettie, Lea and Ava embark on a journey to Paris, to some distant family of Lea's mother. Ettie gets deeply involved in the resistance, Lea grows up in a world at war and Ava stays by her side through it all.

This is one of the better WWII books I've read. Original, because of the golem, a touch of magical realism in historical fiction. The cast of characters - Ettie, Lea and Ava, but also some we meet along the way who become just as important - are all fascinating and each have their own stories told.

And the ending is very touching. There is really no way to see how it's going to go at the end, and how it was done was lovely.

I got this book from NetGalley and I warmly recommend it to all fans of historical fiction when it come out later this month.