When The Angels Left the Old Country

I cannot count how many times I have been told, as a writer, to read my work out loud. Listening to the words, tasting their rhythm and cadence, helps identify awkward phrasing, unrealistic dialogue and a whole host of other problems. I’ve never tried it as a reader until I picked up Sacha Lamb’s delightful historical YA fantasy When the Angels Left the Old Country. As soon as the words left my mouth, I understood that this book was written by someone familiar with the unique speech patterns of native Yiddish speakers.

The story follows a Demon and his unlikely chavrusah, an Angel, as they leave their tiny shtetl and set out for America. The demon is out for adventure. The angel wants to track down a missing girl from their village. And although they will never admit it out loud, neither wants to leave the other behind.

As they journey both by steamship and through the perils of Ellis island they join forces with Rose, who finds herself traveling to America alone after her best friend decides not to make the journey at the last minute. Rose is brave, smart, capable and also utterly clueless as to why her friends defection hurts her so deeply. She and the demon make a fantastic team as the poor angel struggles with its own identity as both a servant of God and a being with wants of its own. Chief among those needs are its desire to stay with the demon even if other righteous deeds pull it in differing directions. 

Along the way we meet such various characters as two Dybbuks, an Ibbur and my personal favorite, a Christian demon. There are also human villains, Jewish and not, that must be dealt with. All this in addition to a damsel to rescue, who actually turns out to be be quite competent herself. 

The authenticity of the setting is baked right into the very language the characters use. Readers not familiar with Yiddish, or the distinct English phrases that Yiddish speakers use as a result of translation, might wonder at how the copy editor let this stuff through. I was grateful for every last STET Lamb employed to preserve this effect. Because read aloud, this book about immigration actually feels like coming home.

Note: the reviewer received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review after requesting it through NetGalley.

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E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.