The World That We Knew

I listened to Judith Light read the book The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. This is another novel by Hoffman that involves magic. A grey heron is part of the magic. At the end of the story Judith Light interviews Alice Hoffman about her writing. This book is set in world war two in France and in Germany. Hoffman wanted to capture the emotions of that time without letting the history get in the way of the story. In my opinion she did capture the emotions of the parents and the children during the war. Lea is a young girl in Berlin. When she is assaulted by a Nazi soldier, her mother asks a rabbi to construct a golem (a magical guardian angel) to lead her to safety in France. The rabbi refuses but his young daughter helps out. The rabbi's daughter eavesdropped on the rabbi and his conversations. She knew how to make a golem. The golem is named Ava and her duty is to lead Lea to safety and to love her as a mother would. Ava does her duty although Lea is not always grateful for the supervision and instruction. Given that Ava is a golem and not a human she can see and hear things that humans cannot. Ava can talk to animals and birds such as a grey heron. I enjoyed every chapter of this book. The author brings a lot of nature into the story and the scenery.