Julie's Review: The World We Knew

Author: Alice Hoffman
Series: None
Publication Date: September 24, 2019
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 384
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Historical Fiction, Folklore
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Heartbreaking and hopeful
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Summary: In Berlin, 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. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and 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. ~amazon.com

Review: You know how when you finish a book it kind of leaves you a bit gutted and like you don't know if you can really close it? Yes, well than The World We Knew is for you because that is exactly how I felt. I have ready many a WWII novel but I don't believe I've read one that incorporated the Jewish Resistance in France and that factors in heavily to Ms. Hoffman's new novel.

In face of the horror that the Nazi's bring upon Berlin, Lea's mom Hanni needs to divise a plan to keep her young daughter, Lea safe. Hanni knows she doesn't have much time, so she seeks out a Rabbi to great a mystical creature, a golem, to protect her daughter as she sends her away to France for safety. There's a hitch though like anything you are creating in the likeness of something, it can only be destroyed by it's creator and this puts the creator at great risk of being destroyed themselves. Ettie is the Rabbi's daughter who agrees to create the golem for Hanni but at the expense of getting her and her sister papers for travel as well. This simple act bonds Lea, Ettie and Ava (the golem) together until they should all perish.

As Ava, Ettie and Lea begin their journey out of Germany and into France, they are separated and go their own ways to try to survive. Ettie is on a journey of revenge and solitary existence until she finds herself part of a bigger group that is trying to make a difference. Lea and Ava lead a relatively normal life until the Nazi's come to their part of France and they have to escape to a variety of locations just to stay alive. Along their way to survive they meet people who will change their perspective on how they look at the world and how they learn to search for the light even in the darkness.

Ms. Hoffman's writing is some of the best words on paper I have had the privledge of reading and in this one, she's at the top of her game. She doesn't hold back punches with the horror and brutality of the time period but yet with Ava and others she shines a light into that brutality. Ettie is the one who sacrifices for what she believes in and also for vengence of a loved one. Ava is the one who is the epitome of hope and light as she fiercely protects Lea but also figures out who she is and what it is she really wants to become.

This is one that you will want to put on the top of your book pile(s) immediately. It's is not to be missed.

Julie's Review: Once Upon a River

Author: Diane Setterfield
Series: None
Publication Date:December 4, 2018
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books/Atria
Pages: 480
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Folklore
Rating: 3.5/5
Bottom Line: Gorgeously written but in the end I don't think her books are for me
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary:  On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless. Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known. ~amazon.com

Review: Here's the thing, I read The Thirteenth Tale a couple years ago and I didn't love it like everyone else. The summary for Once Upon a River sounded so intriguing that I figured I'd give her another go.

This book transports you to towns along the Thames River in an Ancient time and it captures you. The river and its mysteries seep into your soul. You can clearly picture the inn and the people within. Along with the girl who appears dead but who is not. It follows her story through the eyes of the people who love her, who rescued her and her need her. 

While Ms. Setterfield knows how to tell a tale, it took too long for this reader to get to point where it really seemed to take off. I definitely appreciate setting the atmosphere, telling a tale and drawing the reader in but for this reader it didn't connect. I really wanted to love it because so many did. Maybe my initial reading of her debut should have told me we weren't going to connect but I do believe in 2nd chances.

If you love mysterious, gothic, folklore novels then this one is for you.

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Julie's Review: The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel

Author: Magdalena Zyzak
Series: None
Publication Date: January 14, 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt
Pages: 288
Obtained: Publisher
Genre:  Humor, Folklore
Rating: 3.5/5
Bottom Line: A politically humorous debut that was hard for me to connect with.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? just get it at the library

Summary: Set in the quaint (though admittedly backward) fictional nation of Scalvusia in 1939, The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel follows the exploits of a young swineherd with romantic delusions of grandeur. Desperate to attract the voluptuous Roosha, the Gypsy concubine of the local boot-and-shoe magnate, Barnabas and his short-legged steed Wilhelm get embroiled in a series of scandals and misadventures, as every attempt at wooing ends in catastrophe. After the mysterious death of an important figure in the community, a witch-hunt ensues, and a stranger falls from the sky. Barnabas begins to see the terrible tide of history turning in his beloved hometown. The wonderfully eccentric supporting cast includes a priest driven mad by a fig tree, a gang of louts who taunt our reluctant hero at every turn, and a dim-witted vagabond with a goat for a wife. Even as her characters brush up against one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century, Magdalena Zyzak's humor and prose delight in the absurdities of the human animal. ~powells.com  

Review: The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel is a quirky modern day folk-story about a young man coming into his own while his country and the world around him begins to fall apart. Barnabas is a smart young man that no one takes seriously because of his status within the community. It doesn't seem to bother him much except when it comes to his object of affection, Roosha.

Among the humor, is a story of a country at the crossroads of choosing their future. They are stuck between the past and the uncertain future. The town of Odolechka demonstrates on a small scale with the inhabitants. It's hard to believe that this is Ms. Zyzak's first novel because her writing is lush and descriptive. Her use of humor is unlike any other book I've read. It is used in a way that not only makes you laugh but it makes you think. It takes true talent to get the use of humor correct in the first try.

While it might not have resonated with me, I think those who enjoy "dramedy" books, will thoroughly enjoy this one. I will definitely look for Ms. Zyzak's books in the future to see what else she does with her talent. 

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