I ended up picking up this audio book as I saw it in “my recommendations” from Audible after I read The Lost Wife…this book is The Baker’s Daughter: A Novel
I’ve been on a roll with WWII books lately and this one is exactly that, a WWII book. Unlike most I read that are primarily about the Jewish perspective of things, this one is about a German family that owns a bakery. It explains what was expected of the people and the propaganda that they were lead to believe. I appreciated seeing that perspective.
The book is very good-well written with the story coming full circle.
Here is what Amazon has to say about it, “In 1945, Elsie Schmidt is a naive teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she is for her first kiss. She and her family have been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger.
Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine, and she sits down with the owner of Elsie’s German Bakery for what she expects will be an easy interview. But Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story—a story that resonates with her own turbulent past. For Elsie, Reba’s questions are a stinging reminder of that last bleak year of World War II. As the two women’s lives become intertwined, both are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.”
The story is a nice mix linking then and present day with parallel stories.
I have to say that I was a little sad that I didn’t have a hard copy. The end of the book is filled with wonderful sounding recipes…many that I would love to try. It would be so much easier to give them a try if I had a hard copy of the book.
Amazon readers say 4.4 stars…I would sneak ahead a bit on that and say 4.7.
My husband’s grandmother was named Elsie Schmidt, though she married into the name. She lived to 106 and was quilting past 100! She was born in Oklahoma Territory before statehood! Once when we visited, she baked a gooseberry pie with berries from a bush in her yard, but that’s as close to running a bakery as she ever got, to my knowledge.
JUST TRIED YOUR RHUBARB BREAD ,MY HUBBY NOW BUTS THIS AHEAD OF MY BANNANA BREAD. IT TURNED OUT GREAT AND WAS A GREAT TREAT. THANKS FOR THE RECIPE