When the Angels Left the Old Country

Starred review from September 1, 2022
An angel and a demon immigrate to the goldene medina. Little Ash, a lesser son of the famed demon king Ashmedai, studies Talmud all day with his counterpart, a forgetful angel, in the synagogue of a tiny Jewish town in the Pale of Settlement. But Little Ash wants to see more than their unnamed shtetl: He convinces the angel to go to America, ostensibly to find out what happened to Essie, the baker's daughter who hasn't written since she left Warsaw. Steeped in Ashkenazi lore, custom, and faith, this beautifully written story deftly tackles questions of identity, good and evil, obligation, and the many forms love can take. Queerness and gender fluidity thread through both the human and supernatural characters, clearly depicted without feeling anachronistic. A generous peppering of nonitalicized Yiddish and Hebrew (with a glossary in the back) combined with culturally specific dialogue and turns of phrase make this read like a classic while still feeling fresh and contemporary. The immigrants, human and B'nei Elohim, deal with medical gatekeepers at Ellis Island, assimilationist American Jews eager to denounce their greenhorn landsmen, exploitative factory owners, and religious obligations toward the beloved dead. Despite its length, this novel clips quickly along, crafting a world that proves hard to leave behind. Gorgeous, fascinating, and fun. (Fiction. 13-18)

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Starred review from October 17, 2022
An angel and a demon have studied the Talmud together for centuries in a village “so small and out of the way it was only called Shtetl.” Pogroms have caused fellow villagers to make the trek to America, which “had all kinds of wonderful things.” Looking for entertainment, Ashmedai the demon, known as Little Ash, persuades the angel, whose name changes depending on the situation, into making a voyage to N.Y.C., where the labor movement has just begun. Traveling from Shtetl to Ellis Island, they befriend heartbroken Rose Cohen, 16, who fled her own shtetl following the love of her life and best friend Dinah’s marriage to a man. Simultaneously an exploration of personal identity and the relationship between good and evil, this expansive tale, interpreted through both the Talmud and Jewish folklore, follows Little Ash and the angel’s experiences leaving behind everything they’ve ever known. Broad in scope, the strong queer relationships at its core, particularly between Little Ash and the angel, provide an unfaltering anchor. Via a literary third-person point of view, Lamb admirably utilizes a familiar arc of early 20th-century emigration as the foundation of this powerfully moving tale. A Yiddish and Hebrew glossary concludes. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from January 27, 2023

Gr 9 Up-In a tiny village so small it's only known as Shtetl (the word for town), an angel and a demon have been studying the Torah together for a very long time. Little Ash, the demon, however, wants to know why all the young people are moving to America. He manages to convince the angel, who agrees partly to help Samuel the Baker's daughter, who hasn't been heard from since she traveled across the sea, and partly to watch over Little Ash and prevent him from causing any mischief. The angel is immediately unsuccessful at stopping Little Ash's mischief, but finds that perhaps the baker's daughter is in some trouble after all. When the angel gets a name and matching papers to board a ship, he starts to change, and his feelings towards Little Ash change as well. There, they meet another immigrant who needs their help, but can an angel and a demon really protect Jewish immigrants from anti-Semitic sentiment, greedy factory owners, and a dybbuk? Getting to America is only half the battle, and the angel, now known as Uriel, must protect the people he's come to care for, while Little Ash does it in his own fashion. VERDICT A must-buy for any collection, Lamb's historical fiction novel brings soft queer joy to a compelling tale of immigrants and unions and Jewish folklore.-Stacey Shapiro

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Starred review from October 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* There once were an angel and a demon who had been studying the Talmud for 200 years in the tiny Polish shtetl where they lived. They might still have been there had it not been for Essie, a girl from the community who had gone to America and vanished. The two decide to perform a mitzvah and go in search of her. Meanwhile, they meet 16-year-old Rose, a force of nature, and the three team up. Arriving in America, they find themselves involved in a strike against the wicked owner of a sweat shop. More important, the demon, Little Ash, has given the angel a name, Uriel, which results in Uriel gradually turning into a human being. The trio manages to locate Essie, and Rose--after some personal revelations--realizes she's fallen in love with her. As for the relationship between Little Ash and Uriel, it's obviously rooted in a deep love as friends. If it goes further than that, the reader must decide. Richly imagined and plotted, this inspired book has the timeless feeling of Jewish folklore, which is further enhanced by the presence of two magical protagonists, and not one but two dybbuks! In the end, of course, it's the author who has performed the mitzvah by giving their readers this terrific debut novel.

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January 1, 2023
In this expansive queer tale that marries historical fiction with inventive world-building based on Jewish folklore, a demon called Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) and an angel who takes on different names but is eventually known as Uriel set off from Shtetl, a tiny village in the Pale of Settlement, to the U.S., as many young people are doing around the same time (cued as the early twentieth century). Their ostensible mission is to find one of these young people, whom no one has heard from; their party also accumulates the soul of a murdered rabbi, who needs someone to inform his daughter of his death so she can say Kaddish for him and prevent him from becoming a dybbuk. On a parallel immigration journey is Rose, a sixteen-year-old girl who can't understand why she's so upset with her best friend, Dinah, for having married a man. The story's many threads eventually converge around a labor dispute, and the witty, cerebral omniscient storytelling, steeped in Jewish detail, rewards attentive readers. It's a particular joy to observe the human and supernatural characters come to understand themselves and their relationships. A glossary defines Yiddish, Hebrew, Aramaic, and some English terms.

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