Hello! This is Michelle Reid in Dodge City for HPPR’s Radio Readers Book Club Book Bytes. I’m the school librarian at Dodge City High School, and I will mostly talk about some of the best young adult books I’ve read. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that young adult books are only for teens. YA authors are producing some of the best written, most thoughtful books that are being published right now, and they are for everyone.
Today I’d like to tell you about the novel When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb; this is the author’s debut novel. It was published in October of 2022. The author describes the book as “an Ellis Island-era fairy tale,” which is a perfect description. The novel follows an angel and a demon who leave their shtetl in Poland; they follow the traditional route and experience the hardships faced by Europeans who emigrated to the United States during the time the US government processed immigrants through Ellis Island.
When the story begins, Uriel, the angel, and Little Ash, the demon, have spent the last 200 or so years debating the Talmud in their tiny shtetl outside of Warsaw. Uriel lives firmly in the religious world and pays little attention to the human world. Little Ash, however, is fascinated with the humans who surround the two. When residents of their tiny town begin leaving for America to escape the pogroms, Little Ash is watching. He discovers that a teen girl named Essie has gone to America and disappeared. Her family hasn’t received a letter or any news of her whereabouts for months. Sensing that something isn’t right in this situation, he convinces Uriel that the two of them must perform a mitzvah, or good deed done for religious duty - they need to travel the same route to America that Essie took to try to find her. Of course, Little Ash is a demon, and his urge to leave is less influenced by the idea of doing good and more influenced by boredom with the shtetl and curiosity to see more of the human world.
The supernatural travelers experience much of what any poor European immigrant to the United States would have experienced during this time - dangerous land travel, an over-crowded ship to America, not enough food and too much illness on the ship itself, dehumanizing treatment once they reach Ellis Island, detention on the island after the extensive testing to determine their fitness to stay in America, and ill-intentioned humans who try to take advantage of guileless travelers on every leg of the trip. The harsh reality of this world in contrast to the purity of the two main characters, especially Uriel, creates a poignant dichotomy within the book.
The relationship between Uriel the angel and Little Ash the demon is delightful. Uriel’s inability to comprehend the human world and Little Ash’s continued efforts to gently guide and protect Uriel in a world outside their experience while navigating the trip from Poland to New York is beautiful. Uriel voices the emotions any thinking creature who has lived outside of humanity might feel - confusion, sadness, and eventually anger at how some humans treat other humans.
Like many of us, I grew up in the HPPR region. This book was an introduction to many new ideas for me. I knew a little of the pogroms. I knew basic information about the Jewish faith. I knew something more of the experience that people faced when they passed through Ellis Island when emigrating to America - I had a grandfather several generations back who passed through Ellis Island. But this book explored the mysticism inherent in the Jewish faith, and the danger faced by those who left their homes and families in tiny European villages forever. Even the demon was unfamiliar; as graduates of Dodge City High School, my three children are all Red Demons, but a demon in the Jewish tradition is a very different creature than one in the Christian tradition.
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb is a magical, beautiful story that explores friendships, good and evil, identity, and love in all its forms. It’s a wonderful read for anyone from age 14 and up.
For HPPR’s Radio Readers Book Club Summer Reading list, I’m Michelle Reid.
