1. This novel is both historical fiction and magical realism. How
does Alice Hoffman achieve her unique writing style? What details does
she use from each genre? What do each add to the emotional content of
the story?
2. After reading the novel, re-examine the title. Consider who "we"
refers to in relation to the story and to your own life.
3. How do you feel about Ava’s relationship with the heron? Has an
animal ever affected your spiritual life? Are emotions bound to human
experience?
4. In one of the darkest periods of human history, why do the characters
still yearn to live even as the world is falling apart? What makes life
precious? Is it love, family, memory, hope?
5. In fairy tales, beasts are often humane, and humans are often cruel.
In The World That We Knew the same is true. Discuss this theme in the
novel and in your favorite fairy tales.
6. Julien and Victor Lévi are brothers with very different paths. How
does each handle their wartime experience? What do they share despite
their differences, and what aspects of their past influences them most?
7. Marianne initially leaves her father’s farm “to find something that
belonged to her and her alone” (99), which leads her to Paris. Despite
ending up where she began, do you think she has achieved this goal? Why
or why not? Did her love story surprise you? What do you think the
future holds for her?
8. We learn halfway through the book that Hanni instructed her daughter
to destroy Ava once Lea is brought to safety. Why do you think Lea
defies her mother? Do you think she made the right decision? What may
have changed her mind?
9. The book begins with Hanni making a great sacrifice to save her
daughter and ends with Ava doing the same. What do these women share? Is
it possible to love someone else’s children as if they were your own?
10. Ava is a golem, a mysterious creature of Jewish legend, controlled
by her maker and created to do another’s bidding, but something changes.
She longs for free will. Do you think she finds it?
11. Ettie yearns to be a scholar and a rabbi, but because she’s female
these goals are unavailable to her. How does she create her own fate,
and what leads her to rebel against the constraints of gender and
history? Does war create opportunities for women to act outside of
conventional roles?
12. Lea’s mother’s voice is heard throughout the novel in the italicized
sections. The loss of a mother and the loss of a child is central to the
story. How are the long-lasting effects of loss woven through the novel?
13. Can Ava posses a soul due to her ability to love? How does love
change a world of hate, and how does it affect the characters in the
novel?