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Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: 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 t… (more)
User reviews
Emma no longer believes in her faith, nor does she have any belief that the allied forces will come to the rescue. With that in mind, she sets out to do her best to ensure the survival of those left in the village, many who are slowly starving to death. Although this subject has been replayed many times in novels, the characters set this one apart. The characters are varied, from different occupations. from the resistance, to farmers, fishermen, and one young woman finds her own, frowned upon way, to survive. Emma who knows the town's pathways and short cuts better than most, finds ways to get things to those most in need. She is spunky, clever, and formidable, though this will put her in harms way.
When the invasion of Normandy finally does come, the scenes are horrific, as history dictates. A finely written novel, with some unique characters that captured my interest early on. It is often the people that risk much that save many. The Germans are stereotypically portrayed with a few exceptions. This is a read I took to heart.
ARC from publisher.
‘The Baker’s Secret’ is one of the most engrossing novels I have read. 4.5 Stars.
The Baker’s Secret takes place in the months leading up to D-Day. Emma, her Mémé, the veterinarian Guillaume, the old farmer Pierre, Yves the fisherman, Odette the cook, the priest, and above all, Monkey Boy and the clever Goat will steal your heart with their courage.
The novel takes place in the village of Vergers, a small village in France about a mile from the ocean and centers around the town baker, Emma. Emma had been ordered by the German command to bake 12 loaves of bread for them every day and was given enough flour to bake just 12 loaves. Instead she mixed ground up straw with her dough so that she had enough dough to make 14 loaves and could share 2 loaves with the people in town who were the hungriest. Even though her mentor had been killed by the Germans, her father had been sent away on a train and her boyfriend had been sent to join the German army, Emma still felt that it was her duty to help the people in her town as best she could. Emma is courageous and puts her life on the line to help the people in her town. She doesn't think of herself as heroic but feels that she is doing what needs to be done to help people get through each day.
The author does a fantastic job of depicting the realities of war on the people who are not part of the fighting but are the collateral damage of the war. He gives an honest portrayal of the indignities that the Germans forced onto the citizens and depicts the lives of the people who are starving and desperate in detail. This is a novel about looking for a flicker of light in the darkness and being able to find it with the help of friends.
Thanks to LibraryThing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Emmanuelle, or Emma, is the young village baker. She does not work out of a shop because that shop, owned by her Jewish mentor, was closed when he was shot by the soldiers. Instead, she uses the oven in her farm kitchen to bake bread for the Nazi officers in her village. She gets good flour, not the horrible stuff the villagers get, and bakes twelve loaves a day under orders of the Commandant. Only she cuts the flour with finely pulverized straw, stretching the loaves to fourteen. The extra bread she distributes to the neediest of her neighbors.
So begins the story of the small resistance and great courage of Emma and others in Vergers. The fisherman brings in a secret second catch if he can get more petrol The prettiest girl in the village colludes with Emma to get petrol from her German lover if she can get just one egg a day. And so it goes as they face daily horrors and risk their lives to help each other. Emma and most of her colleagues are not part of the Resistance; in fact, Emma does not think much of the underground movement since it has already claimed the life of her father who was a leader. She has given up any hope that the Germans will be defeated; she is just trying to keep people alive.
This is a wonderful book full of quiet hope in a hopeless time. Highly recommended.
This is a historical/fiction about a small village in Northern France that has become occupied by the Germany army during WW2.
The author did a wonderful job showing what the lives of the village people was like under German rule and how they
gave up hope that they would be delivered from the German army.
We meet Emma a young baker who has been ordered to bake for the soldiers. She is giving a ration of flour to make the bread, but
has found a way of adding to it so she can make a few extra loaves to help the people who have very little to eat or feed their families
Emma is playing a very dangerous game by doing this and if caught it would cost her, her life. Also it would cost the villagers their lives
if found out that they are helping her in other ways.
It shows us what chooses many people where willing to make during the German occupancy. Many lost their lives for what they believed
in to help others. They never gave up hope for freedom from the German army.
Would recommend this book for anyone who loves history or just a great read.
The Baker's Secret is an extraordinary book that shows the effect of an occupation on a small town during WWII. The beautiful writing clearly conveys the struggle, the intense emotional state of the people and the beauty of the area. I could easily imagine Emma's baking shed, the coastline and the church. More importantly, The Baker's Secret impressed upon me the importance of one person during the times of struggle. Emma's perseverance and ingenuity saved lives and gave her town hope. Another aspect highlighted was the choices people will make in order to stay alive, some will paint "V's" on a tree in order to tirelessly annoy the occupying troops, some will use their beauty to take up with the enemy, some will turn in their neighbors, some will bake extra bread, some will join the Resistance and risk their lives smuggling ammo. listening in to German conversation and counting paces. With the Resistance the importance of every person's actions put together was highlighted. I thought it was especially important that the people who everyone believed were inconsequential, those who have been outcast, or with disabilities were able to do the most because they went unseen. These characters weren't even called their true names, going by The Goat and Monkey Boy, they were as big of heros as Emma. Lastly, it was very interesting to see the D-Day invasion through the eyes of the townspeople, it is what they hoped for for so long but happened very differently than they imagined. Overall, a tremendous story of courage, strength and hope of a town during WWII.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Emma is a very strong female character that you can't
Emma's strength and subtle resistance to the Germans was amazing. Emma knew how to be subversive and still stay alive.
Emma's role in helping to save the residents of her town was to follow the Kommandant's order to bake bread for him and his men every day.
Emma had a secret about baking this bread. She would sneak in two extra loaves to share with the townspeople by stretching the number of required loaves by two.
THE BAKER'S SECRET shows the unity the Europeans had to have in order to survive.
The characters were authentic, and you will become immersed in their lives and suffer with them as well as silently cheer with them when the courage they share turns in to a triumph.
I thoroughly enjoyed THE BAKER'S SECRET. The writing is marvelous and detailed. The book is one you won't want to put down.
If you read only one book this year, make it THE BAKER'S SECRET.
THE BAKER'S SECRET is a wonderful testimony and tribute to the people who lived through and survived WWII. 5/5
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.
I highly, highly recommend The Baker’s Secret. The book is truly a must-read. Thanks to Great Thoughts, Great Readers and the publisher for my copy of this ARC.
This book was written in a detached, almost flat,
This is a very well written book, I was totally engrossed from start to finish and was disappointed that the tale didn't last longer. The characters are well formed and believable and you feel empathy for the struggles each must face. There is perhaps a little bit too much of the stereotypical occupied village people - an informant, a scarlet lady, an heroic martyr, but it isn't a glaring fault. I especially liked the fresh perspective of D-day as seen from the villagers eyes.
I haven't read anything by Keirnan before, but will look up his two previous novels now.
Strongly recommended!
“All through those years of war, the bread tasted of humiliation.”
Emma is twenty-two on the eve of
Emma watches as Ezra and other people in the village disappear or are killed in full view of the villagers.
The German Kommandant is lured by the scent of her bread baking and orders her to prepare bread for him, giving her rations for enough flour to bake twelve loaves. By finely grinding straw and adding just the right amount to the flour she is able to bake fourteen loaves. She is certain she will be found out, but until that happens she hides the two extra loaves and divides them among the villagers according to their need.
“In a time of humiliation, the only dignified answer is cunning….”
As the villagers turn to her with their needs she wonders, “Why, of all people were they asking her?” She begins to trade, sometimes to borrow and sometimes to steal in order to keep them alive. “She let them in one by one. Drops in a bucket of need.” She learns other skills as well. She creates a minefield to hid chickens for the eggs, and trades cheese for gas and fuel for fish.
Despite her efforts Emma has lost hope that the Allies will come. But they do come. She watches the landing. “Emma saw bodies…They lay in all sorts of positions…all over the beach…none of them were moving…The dead outnumbered the population of the village of
Vergers…There was nothing for the invading hordes to gain…There would be no spoils. ..Then why?” With tears in her eyes she realizes they have come for the people.
An Allied soldier gives Emma a square of chocolate wrapped in foil, “Something to remember us by,” he tells her. To Emma it was “the taste of hope.”
Kiernan has two previous novels, The Hummingbird” and “The Curiosity.” Both of these are excellent, thought provoking stories, but it is in “The Baker’s Secret” where you discover Kiernan has become an inspired wordsmith.
The tale of Emma, the villagers, the animals, and the soldiers, flows into your senses warming you like the smell of warm bread infiltrates your whole being. The words are effortless, bringing the tale to such life that you will never forget it.
It is unusual to find a book that lacks nothing, but this is one.
After the Germans conscript her boyfriend, imprison her father for being a leader of the Resistance, and murder her uncle the baker because he is a Jew, Emma finds herself frightfully alone. Left to care for her grandmother, and to somehow survive the terror of war surrounding her, she miraculously hatches a plan to assist the town villagers in staying alive by creating a cleverly planned secret network that outwits the Germans.
An intriguing plot, believable characters, and a story you won’t forget for some time after you turn the last page, The Baker’s Secret is a winner. What I liked the most about this book was that I found it to be a very authentic wartime experience. I read a few of the negative reviews from various Amazon readers and really could not agree with their points of view. War never has a completely happy ending. It is not a neat and tidy package when all is said and done with. Soldiers and civilians may get tragically killed, some find ways to mysteriously escape their fate, a lucky few blissfully return home, but sometimes sadly they often go missing never to be seen or heard from again. I strongly felt that the author portrayed a very realistic story of just what could have happened in this small French Village, or in any of the other European countries. Four stars for a very enjoyable and informative read.
Author Stephen P. Kiernan, spent much of his writing career as a journalist honing his craft and has become a fine and renowned writer of fiction. The emotional condition of his characters comes through clearly; one is transported in time and experiences the setting with all five senses. I look forward to reading more books by this very talented writer.
Synopsis (from book's cover):
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—by enabling them to care for one another, by being a model of dignity and defiance, and by helping the villagers survive should the Allies ever come.
As a brutal Nazi captain begins to uncover her network, and the intricately woven web of resistance and subterfuge starts to unravel, the people of Vergers find their bonds tested as never before. Ultimately Emma, facing potential execution, displays a courage and strength of will that shows them all a path to redemption.