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* PayEvilUntoEvil: Little Ash [[SoulEating eats the soul]] of Reb Fishl, who had extorted countless people and even murdered some. Uriel kills the demon doctor SerialKiller, but doesn't eat the soul. Little Ash also kills [[spoiler:one of Sullivan's men and Sullivan himself]].
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* PayEvilUntoEvil: Little Ash [[SoulEating eats the soul]] of Reb Fishl, who had extorted countless people and even murdered some. (It's implied that this is actually a metaphysical limitation of that power, and Little Ash couldn't have used it if Reb Fishl had been a good person.) Uriel kills the demon doctor SerialKiller, but doesn't eat the soul. Little Ash also kills [[spoiler:one of Sullivan's men and Sullivan himself]].
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* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Prior to getting a name of its own, Uriel is easily distractable, getting entirely consumed by any task that crosses its path and forgetting about everything else. Little Ash has to make sure it doesn't wander off and turn into a sunbeam. The name means Uriel can now choose whether to follow these impulses, so Little Ash doesn't need to do as much minding anymore.
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* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Prior to getting a name of its own, Uriel is easily distractable, getting entirely consumed by any task that crosses its path and forgetting about everything else. Little Ash has to make sure it doesn't wander off and turn into a sunbeam. The name means Uriel can now choose whether to follow these impulses, so Little Ash doesn't need to do as much minding anymore.minding--which actually makes him jealous and insecure, because a Uriel who doesn't ''need'' him might be a Uriel who doesn't want to be friends anymore.
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* CloudCuckooLandersMinder: Prior to getting a name of its own, Uriel is easily distractable, getting entirely consumed by any task that crosses its path and forgetting about everything else. Little Ash has to make sure it doesn't wander off and turn into a sunbeam. The name means Uriel can now choose whether to follow these impulses, so Little Ash doesn't need to do as much minding anymore.
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* CloudCuckooLandersMinder: CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Prior to getting a name of its own, Uriel is easily distractable, getting entirely consumed by any task that crosses its path and forgetting about everything else. Little Ash has to make sure it doesn't wander off and turn into a sunbeam. The name means Uriel can now choose whether to follow these impulses, so Little Ash doesn't need to do as much minding anymore.
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* CloudCuckooLandersMinder: Prior to getting a name of its own, Uriel is easily distractable, getting entirely consumed by any task that crosses its path and forgetting about everything else. Little Ash has to make sure it doesn't wander off and turn into a sunbeam. The name means Uriel can now choose whether to follow these impulses, so Little Ash doesn't need to do as much minding anymore.
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* PronounTrouble: Rose doesn't know Uriel is an angel for the first half or so of the book, and thinks Ash referring to Uriel as "it" is a quirk of their particular Yiddish dialect rather than Uriel's actual pronouns.
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''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book deal. It won the Stonewall Book Awards and the Sydney Taylor Book Award.
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''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book deal. It won the Stonewall Book Awards Award and the Sydney Taylor Book Award.
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Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) the demon and his friend the angel (unnamed when the story starts) decide to leave their tiny shtetl in Poland and make the journey to America, to find Essie Signer, a woman from their shtetl whom they have heard is in trouble. They cross paths with Rose Cohen, a young woman leaving behind her best friend Dinah, who decided to get married to a man. The three of them face demons, corrupt officials, mob bosses, and medical exams, among other challenges on their journey.
''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book deal.
''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book deal.
to:
Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) the demon and his friend the angel (unnamed when the story starts) decide to leave their tiny shtetl in Poland and make the journey to America, to find Essie Signer, Singer, a woman from their shtetl whom they have heard is in trouble. They cross paths with Rose Cohen, a young woman leaving behind her best friend Dinah, who decided to get married to a man. The three of them face demons, corrupt officials, mob bosses, and medical exams, among other challenges on their journey.
journey.
''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a bookdeal.
deal. It won the Stonewall Book Awards and the Sydney Taylor Book Award.
''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book
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* GhostlyGoals: The rebbe's ghost needs Uriel to tell his family of his passing so they can say Kaddish for him within a month of his death, or he'll turn into a dybbuk.
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* GhostlyGoals: The rebbe's ghost needs Uriel to tell his family of his passing so they can say Kaddish for him within a month of his death, or he'll turn into a dybbuk. [[spoiler:Uriel waits too long for Little Ash on Ellis Island, and the rebbe becomes a dybbuk as predicted.]]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/when_the_angels_left_the_old_country.jpg]]
Everyone has heard of the millions of Jews who immigrated to America from Eastern Europe. But not as many know about those among the immigrants who were not quite human...
Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) the demon and his friend the angel (unnamed when the story starts) decide to leave their tiny shtetl in Poland and make the journey to America, to find Essie Signer, a woman from their shtetl whom they have heard is in trouble. They cross paths with Rose Cohen, a young woman leaving behind her best friend Dinah, who decided to get married to a man. The three of them face demons, corrupt officials, mob bosses, and medical exams, among other challenges on their journey.
''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book deal.
!!It contains the following tropes:
* {{Asmodeus}}: Little Ashmedai, like all his hundreds of brothers, is named after their father Ashmedai the demon lord.
* BrokenAngel: After Uriel starts carrying the rebbe's ghost, it loses some of its angelic powers. [[spoiler:It gets them back once the dybbuk is gone.]]
* ClosetKey: Essie helps Rose realize that she's a lesbian.
* CoolOldLady: Grandma Rivke notices that Ash is a demon, but she doesn't care.
* DisguisedInDrag: Little Ash puts on a skirt to sneak out of Ellis Island.
* GhostlyGoals: The rebbe's ghost needs Uriel to tell his family of his passing so they can say Kaddish for him within a month of his death, or he'll turn into a dybbuk.
* HeelRealization: At the end, [[spoiler:Solomon Boaz]] realizes what a terrible person he's been, confesses his sins to the rabbi, and [[spoiler:sells his factory to the workers]].
* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: When they don't want other people (usually Rose) to understand what they're saying, Ashel and Uriel communicate in Aramaic.
* HolyBurnsEvil: Uriel's power makes short work of the demon doctor. [[spoiler:When Ash becomes a WillingChanneler of the rebbe's dybbuk, it using holy names to perform magic causes his tongue to burn.]]
* HumanityEnsues: After Uriel the angel gets a name, it starts becoming more and more human, having to breathe and eat when it didn't before.
* AnImmigrantsTale: This follows the same general plot, but it's also queer and UrbanFantasy.
* InvisibleToNormals: Demons can see people's sins, personified as creatures hanging around them. After a while, Uriel can see them too, though it can't tell them apart very well.
* ItIsDehumanizing: That's the point, really. Little Ash (and the narrative) always calls the angel "it" because it ''isn't'' human.
* MadDoctor: The demonic doctor at Ellis Island is revealed to be a SerialKiller, [[HunterOfHisOwnKind especially of other demons]].
* MeaningfulName: The name Little Ash picks for the angel is Uriel Federman. Uriel is the name of an angel, meaning "light of God", and Federman is Yiddish for "feather man".[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Because of the wings.]][[/note]]
* NonHumanNonBinary[=/=]OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: Angels have NoBiologicalSex, and Uriel is always called "it", though it looks male to most people.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: At the beginning of the book, the narrator notes that ''sheydim'' (Jewish demons) are closer to what we might consider TheFairFolk. There are also Christian demons, and demons of any human culture that has them in its folklore.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Little Ash [[SoulEating eats the soul]] of Reb Fishl, who had extorted countless people and even murdered some. Uriel kills the demon doctor SerialKiller, but doesn't eat the soul. Little Ash also kills [[spoiler:one of Sullivan's men and Sullivan himself]].
* PossessionBurnout: A dybbuk possessing a person for too long will kill them, as almost happens to [[spoiler:Isaak Shulman]].
* SuddenlyBilingual: At first, the angel could only speak Hebrew or Aramaic. After becoming Uriel Federman, it knows Yiddish, and picks up English very quickly after arriving in America.
* SueDonym: Little Ash chooses the alias Asher Klein. "Klein" means "small" in German and Yiddish.
* VillainousParentalInstinct: For all his faults, Boaz cares deeply for his daughter, and [[spoiler:repents and makes amends at the end for her sake]].
* WhatIsThisFeeling: After HumanityEnsues, Uriel starts feeling unfamiliar emotions, especially towards its longtime companion. At the end, it tells Ash that "[[spoiler:You are the friend of my soul.]]"
* WillingChanneler: Uriel lets the rebbe's spirit cling onto it while they're on the ship until it can reach his family in New York. [[spoiler:To escape from the Sullivans' hideout, Ash offers his own body to the dybbuk so it will leave Isaak's body.]]
* WouldntHitAGirl: Peter Sullivan's brother Jamie draws the line at threatening to shoot a girl, but his brother [[WouldHitAGirl has no such compunctions]].
----
Everyone has heard of the millions of Jews who immigrated to America from Eastern Europe. But not as many know about those among the immigrants who were not quite human...
Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) the demon and his friend the angel (unnamed when the story starts) decide to leave their tiny shtetl in Poland and make the journey to America, to find Essie Signer, a woman from their shtetl whom they have heard is in trouble. They cross paths with Rose Cohen, a young woman leaving behind her best friend Dinah, who decided to get married to a man. The three of them face demons, corrupt officials, mob bosses, and medical exams, among other challenges on their journey.
''When the Angels Left the Old Country'' is the debut novel of Sacha Lamb, published in 2022. It began as a serialized story on their tumblr, but was removed when they got a book deal.
!!It contains the following tropes:
* {{Asmodeus}}: Little Ashmedai, like all his hundreds of brothers, is named after their father Ashmedai the demon lord.
* BrokenAngel: After Uriel starts carrying the rebbe's ghost, it loses some of its angelic powers. [[spoiler:It gets them back once the dybbuk is gone.]]
* ClosetKey: Essie helps Rose realize that she's a lesbian.
* CoolOldLady: Grandma Rivke notices that Ash is a demon, but she doesn't care.
* DisguisedInDrag: Little Ash puts on a skirt to sneak out of Ellis Island.
* GhostlyGoals: The rebbe's ghost needs Uriel to tell his family of his passing so they can say Kaddish for him within a month of his death, or he'll turn into a dybbuk.
* HeelRealization: At the end, [[spoiler:Solomon Boaz]] realizes what a terrible person he's been, confesses his sins to the rabbi, and [[spoiler:sells his factory to the workers]].
* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: When they don't want other people (usually Rose) to understand what they're saying, Ashel and Uriel communicate in Aramaic.
* HolyBurnsEvil: Uriel's power makes short work of the demon doctor. [[spoiler:When Ash becomes a WillingChanneler of the rebbe's dybbuk, it using holy names to perform magic causes his tongue to burn.]]
* HumanityEnsues: After Uriel the angel gets a name, it starts becoming more and more human, having to breathe and eat when it didn't before.
* AnImmigrantsTale: This follows the same general plot, but it's also queer and UrbanFantasy.
* InvisibleToNormals: Demons can see people's sins, personified as creatures hanging around them. After a while, Uriel can see them too, though it can't tell them apart very well.
* ItIsDehumanizing: That's the point, really. Little Ash (and the narrative) always calls the angel "it" because it ''isn't'' human.
* MadDoctor: The demonic doctor at Ellis Island is revealed to be a SerialKiller, [[HunterOfHisOwnKind especially of other demons]].
* MeaningfulName: The name Little Ash picks for the angel is Uriel Federman. Uriel is the name of an angel, meaning "light of God", and Federman is Yiddish for "feather man".[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Because of the wings.]][[/note]]
* NonHumanNonBinary[=/=]OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: Angels have NoBiologicalSex, and Uriel is always called "it", though it looks male to most people.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: At the beginning of the book, the narrator notes that ''sheydim'' (Jewish demons) are closer to what we might consider TheFairFolk. There are also Christian demons, and demons of any human culture that has them in its folklore.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Little Ash [[SoulEating eats the soul]] of Reb Fishl, who had extorted countless people and even murdered some. Uriel kills the demon doctor SerialKiller, but doesn't eat the soul. Little Ash also kills [[spoiler:one of Sullivan's men and Sullivan himself]].
* PossessionBurnout: A dybbuk possessing a person for too long will kill them, as almost happens to [[spoiler:Isaak Shulman]].
* SuddenlyBilingual: At first, the angel could only speak Hebrew or Aramaic. After becoming Uriel Federman, it knows Yiddish, and picks up English very quickly after arriving in America.
* SueDonym: Little Ash chooses the alias Asher Klein. "Klein" means "small" in German and Yiddish.
* VillainousParentalInstinct: For all his faults, Boaz cares deeply for his daughter, and [[spoiler:repents and makes amends at the end for her sake]].
* WhatIsThisFeeling: After HumanityEnsues, Uriel starts feeling unfamiliar emotions, especially towards its longtime companion. At the end, it tells Ash that "[[spoiler:You are the friend of my soul.]]"
* WillingChanneler: Uriel lets the rebbe's spirit cling onto it while they're on the ship until it can reach his family in New York. [[spoiler:To escape from the Sullivans' hideout, Ash offers his own body to the dybbuk so it will leave Isaak's body.]]
* WouldntHitAGirl: Peter Sullivan's brother Jamie draws the line at threatening to shoot a girl, but his brother [[WouldHitAGirl has no such compunctions]].
----
