The World That We Knew

by Alice Hoffman

  Birds scattered overhead. Ava let go of all that she was and all she had ever been. She was ready, even if there was no World to Come for her, even if she had no soul. She was willing, but after several hours, she was still in the world. She could hear her own heart beating, a thud that shook her to her core, a sound she had never before heard. Perhaps she was not broken, a monster made of clay. Her pulse beat thickly, sounding in her ears. She was more than she should ever be, made by women to be a woman. But that made her less as well, for there is an ending to all mortal life and all life is damage. The bruise left by the soldier bloomed like a dark flower on her now delicate skin. Her breath came hot and fast. She had thought she would never know why humans fought so hard to stay alive, but now she understood. It was love everlasting. It was the thing that could never be erased. She had been made flesh by Lea’s love for her. She ached and bled and felt tired in her bones.

  When she opened her eyes, the word emet was still on her arm.

  This is what it was to be human, to be at the will of fate. This is what it felt like to lose a child you loved who had loved you in return. She was awake and brought to life. Being human came to her unbidden, it took hold of her, and changed her. She was helpless against time, the owner of a fragile heart. She felt her pulse and the human blood in her veins. This is what love did. It was a miracle and a sacrifice.

  She went to the heron’s grave and lay down beside him. This is what grief was, she understood that now. It was never-ending and you carried it with you. You could not stop it or regret it, you could only keep it close to your heart. She could no longer speak the langauge of birds, or hear the fish in the streams, or speak to the angels, but she could heal the sick and she could find her way even though she was alone. The world was no longer a map, it was the place she walked through. She had no idea whether or not she would still see the angel when she tended to the sick and the broken. Perhaps he would look through the window or walk through the door, or perhaps she would not see him again until she took comfort in his arms. Either way, it was morning and she knew where she was going.

  She arose from the grass in the first light of day, alive.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  There are many people to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude, most especially Amanda Urban, for her wise counsel, and Marysue Rucci, for her generosity and faith.

  Thank you to Ron Bernstein for so many years of friendship and loving support.

  Thank you to everyone at Simon & Schuster who championed my work, especially Carolyn Reidy and Jonathan Karp.

  Much gratitude to Zack Knoll, Anne Tate Pearce, Elizabeth Breeden, Richard Rhorer, Cary Goldstein, Wendy Sheanin, Mia Crowley-Hald, Carly Loman, Lauren Peters Collaer, and Jackie Seow.

  Thank you to Suzanne Baboneau at Simon & Schuster UK for support for many books over many years.

  I am indebted to Madison Wolters for historical research and literary insights, including an astounding ability to see this world with fresh eyes at every reading, with patience, enthusiasm, and a deep understanding of the story.

  A most special thank-you to my beloved friend Jill Karp and my wonderful and invaluable assistant, Katherine Painter, for traveling to France with me on an unforgettable journey. And gratitude to Jill for introducing me to Facing History and Ourselves, and to Judi Bohn for introducing me to survivors in Boston.

  Gratitude to Deborah Thompson for her continuing assistance with historical and religious research and her ability to get to the truth. I am indebted to the Visiting Scholars Program at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University for bringing us together many years ago.

  Thank you to Deborah Revzin for jumping into this book wholeheartedly.

  Thank you to my brother, Dr. Ross Hoffman, for his mathematical expertise. And many thanks to the Hoffman-Nichols family from Paris and Vienna for German and French translations. Thank you Mindy Givon for visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem with me.

  All historical errors are mine alone, but I was fortunate enough to discuss much of this history with experts, as well as with those who had lived through this dark time. I was privileged to travel through France with Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat, historian and educational coordinator of Yahad-In Unum who has researched Maison d’Izieu and the fate of Jewish children in France for the past seventeen years. I am so grateful to have had his insights as a French citizen, a historian, and a man of compassion. Thank you to Adrien Allier, in charge of development of the Mémorial National de la Prison de Montluc, for guiding me through the prison and its history.

  Gratitude to Susan Rubin Suleiman, scholar and writer, the C. Douglas Dillon Research Professor of the Civilization of France and Research Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University, for her friendship, her careful reading of the manuscript, and her invaluable comments.

  Through Facing History and Ourselves, an organization dedicated to the education and remembrance of the Holocaust and all genocides with the hope of confronting hate in the future, I was introduced to many child survivors, now in their eighties and nineties, who generously shared their stories. Some had not spoken in detail about their childhood circumstances before but now wished to speak, some spoke often, especially to young students, and some had written valuable memoirs. I am so grateful to all who raised their voices. I am in awe of your courage.

  I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Gossels family: filmmaker Lisa Gossels; artist and writer Nancy Gossels; and most especially to Peter Gossels, a child survivor and an extraordinary man who spoke to me at length about his childhood in France. I’m grateful to the many survivors who were so generous in sharing their stories with me, including Sarah Miller, for her kindness and insights, and Eveline Weyl in Boston and her family in France, Henri and Claudine Moos, for sharing their histories. Thank you to Christian de Monbrison for traveling back in time with me to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and for speaking so eloquently about a truly amazing life. Thank you to everyone at Maison d’Izieu and to the generous current residents of Saint-Julien-de-Coppel for allowing me to visit and greeting me with such warmth and generosity, and to everyone who was so gracious and welcoming at the Centre Culturel Jules Isaac in Clermont-Ferrand. Thank you also to my guide who was rebuilding the Château de Chabannes and took the time to open every door.

  To my dear and beloved friends, thanks will never be enough. To Pamela Painter, writer and Professor at Emerson College for her early reading of the manuscript and her thoughtful comments. To Laura Zigman for always being willing to run away to write. To Diane Ackerman for sharing fictional worlds by the sea. To Professor Sue Standing, for her friendship and devotion to literature.

  I will always be grateful to my beloved teacher Professor Albert Guerard, in whose office I write every day, and to Maclin Bocock Guerard, my dear friend.

  I am so grateful to my readers for years of support and loving kindness.

  Love and gratitude to my grandmother, Lillie, for telling me my first stories.

  To my mother, Sherry Hoffman, I will miss you forever.

  More from the Author

  Echoes

  Faerie Knitting

  The Rules of Magic

  Faithful

  The Marriage of…

  The Museum of…

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  © DEBORAH FEINGOLD

  ALICE HOFFMAN is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, The Red Garden, The Dovekeepers, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites, and Faithful. She lives near Boston.

  SimonandSchuster.com

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Alice-Hoffman

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  ALSO BY ALICE HOFFMAN

  The Rules of Magic

  Faithful

  The Marriage of Opposites

  The Museum of Extraordinary Things

  The Dovekeepers

  The Red Garden

  The Story Sist
ers

  The Third Angel

  Skylight Confessions

  The Ice Queen

  Blackbird House

  The Probable Future

  Blue Diary

  The River King

  Local Girls

  Here on Earth

  Practical Magic

  Second Nature

  Turtle Moon

  Seventh Heaven

  At Risk

  Illumination Night

  Fortune’s Daughter

  White Horses

  Angel Landing

  The Drowning Season

  Property Of

  YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

  Nightbird

  Green Heart: Green Angel & Green Witch

  Green Witch

  Incantation

  The Foretelling

  Green Angel

  Water Tales: Aquamarine & Indigo

  Indigo

  Aquamarine

  NONFICTION

  Survival Lessons

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  FURTHER READING

  For those who wish to know more about the history explored in The World That We Knew.

  Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. Volume 1, The Five Books of Moses. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.

  —“No sojourner shall you oppress, for you know the sojourner’s heart, since you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”—Exodus 23:9

  Bailly, Danielle, ed. The Hidden Children of France, 1940–1945: Stories of Survival. State University of New York Press, 2010.

  Berg, Rav P. S. The Essential Zohar: The Source of Kabbalistic Wisdom. Three Rivers Press, 2002.

  Cretzmeyer, Stacy, Klarsfeld, Beate, and Hartz, Ruth Kapp. Your Name is Renée: Ruth Kapp Hartz’s Story as a Hidden Child in Nazi-Occupied France. Oxford University Press, 1999.

  Gilbert, Martin. The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. Holt Paperbacks, 2004.

  Klarsfeld, Serge. Remembering Georgy: Letters from The House of Izieu. New York Aperture, 2001.

  Klarsfeld, Serge. The Children of Izieu: A Human Tragedy. Harry N. Abrams, 1985.

  Lang, Andrew, ed. The Blue Fairy Book. Dover Publications, 1965.

  Lefenfeld, Nancy. The Fate of Others: Rescuing Jewish Children on the French-Swiss Border. Timbrel Press, 2013.

  Marrus, Michael R., and Paxton, Robert O. Vichy France and the Jews. 2nd. ed. Stanford University Press, 2019.

  Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. HarperOne, 2009.

  Miller, Sarah Lew, and Lazarus, Joyce B. Hiding in Plain Sight: Eluding the Nazis in Occupied France. Academy Chicago Publishers, 2012.

  Sigward, Daniel. Holocaust and Human Behavior. Facing History and Ourselves, 2017.

  Suleiman, Susan Rubin. Crisis of Memory and the Second World War. Harvard University Press, 2006.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Alice Hoffman

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition September 2019

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  Interior design by Carly Loman

  Jacket design by Lauren Peters-Collaer

  Jacket art of Heron by Laurel A . Egan/Shutterstock

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Hoffman, Alice, author.

  Title: The world that we knew : a novel / Alice Hoffman.

  Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster, 2019.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018057681| ISBN 9781501137570 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501137587 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781501137594 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Paris (France)—History—1940–1944—Fiction. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Fiction. | Jews—France—Paris—Fiction. | Jewish Children—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3558.O3447 W67 2019 | DDC 813/.54—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018057681

  ISBN 978-1-5011-3757-0

  ISBN 978-1-5011-3759-4 (ebook)