May 9th, 2025
Home | Log in!

On Top Shelf
STANDING WATCHSTANDING WATCH
Fresh Pick
THE GREEK HOUSE
THE GREEK HOUSE

New Books This Week

Reader Games


The books of May are here—fresh, fierce, and full of feels.

Slideshow image


Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

slideshow image
Wedding season includes searching for a missing bride�and a killer . . .


slideshow image
Sometimes the path forward begins with a step back.


slideshow image
One island. Three generations. A summer that changes everything.


slideshow image
A snapshot made them legends. What it didn�t show could tear them apart.


slideshow image
This life coach will give you a lift!


slideshow image
A twisty, "addictive," mystery about jealousy and bad intentions


slideshow image
Trapped by magic, haunted by muses�she must master the cards before they�re lost to darkness.


slideshow image
Masquerades, secrets, and a forbidden romance stitched into every seam.


slideshow image
A vanished manuscript. A murdered expert. A castle full of secrets�and one sharp-witted sleuth.


Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

slideshow image
Two warrior angels. First friends, now lovers. Their future? A WILD UNKNOWN.


The Baker's Secret

The Baker's Secret, May 2017
by Stephen P. Kiernan

William Morrow
320 pages
ISBN: 006236958X
EAN: 9780062369581
Kindle: B01L6R2YAO
Hardcover / e-Book
Add to Wish List


Purchase



"HEARTBREAKING, BUT UPLIFTING STORY OF WAR AND WARM BREAD!"

Fresh Fiction Review

The Baker's Secret
Stephen P. Kiernan

Reviewed by Patricia (Pat) Pascale
Posted April 25, 2018

Historical

THE BAKER'S SECRET is the BEST book I have read in 2018. From the lovely cover, to the first page and to the finale, I was not able to put it down. What a charismatic and truly brave heroine! Emmanuelle, .a.k.a Emma is 22, courageous, spunky, and determined. In the spring of 1944, the war has been raging for four years. The small french village of Vergers has been occupied by the Germans who are cruel, unfeeling, and determined to break the citizens under their control. Strict rationing and curfews are in effect and visits from the German soldiers never bring anything but pain and sorrow. Emma has been an apprentice in the local bakery for her critical mentor, Uncle Ezra. He is forced to wear the Star of David on his lapel. One day he is dragged out of his store by German soldiers, taken to the public square and shot, because he is a Jew. Her boyfriend, Philippe, was conscripted into the German Army and her father put on a train, never to return. She lived and cared for her grandmother, Meme, old but wise. One day the Kommandant smelled the bread baking and stopped to taste it. He orders Emma to bake 12 loaves for his officers every day. Given the precise amount of flour to bake a dozen loaves, Emma grinds dried grass into the mix so that she can stretch the recipe to add two additional loaves. She keeps those two and distributes them to her starving friends and neighbors and Meme. Emma then begins a secret network to exchange or barter for anything that will help her countrymen. She siphons gas from the soldier's trucks or motorcycles, and gives it to the fisherman. He gives fresh fish to Emma to distribute in return. Tobacco, even a light bulb are "found" and passed on. She "borrows" a few chickens from the local priest and breeds them with her rooster and when the chicks are born, Emma secrets them away until they lay eggs. She then distributes the eggs. Emma works hard, takes many dangerous chances. Her one woman underground trading market keeps her neighbors going, and Emma becomes the local hero, a step ahead of the German occupiers. Stephen P. Kiernan writes a heart breaking novel that brilliantly weaves historical facts into a fiction that will captivate you. He describes the Vergers' longing to be free again but their feelings of hopelessness as they plod from one day to the next, waiting for the Allies and help. His depiction of the dramatic D-Day invasion on the Normandy shores is spectacular. His characters, whose human spirit to survive and overcome the most tragic of circumstances will touch your heart and have you cheering as the Allied forces come to their rescue. THE BAKER'S SECRET is a fabulous book that is very uplifting. Bravo, Mr. Kiernan, you are at the top of my list of favorite authors! I like your style!

Learn more about The Baker's Secret

SUMMARY

From the multiple-award-winning, critically acclaimed author of The Hummingbird and The Curiosity comes a dazzling novel of World War II—a shimmering tale of courage, determination, optimism, and the resilience of the human spirit, set in a small Normandy village on the eve of D-Day. On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country. Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again. In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers. But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.


What do you think about this review?

Comments

No comments posted.

Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!

 

 

 

© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net  all rights reserved Privacy Policy