Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-372).

"From New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes a beautiful story of one Jewish child refugee's flight to safety in Nazi German and her mother's impossible decision to set her free"--

Berlin. Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. Ettie, the daughter of a renowned rabbi, 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. In Paris Lea meets her soulmate. From there she travels to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; then 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. -- adapted from jacket