The Baker’s Secret audiobook

THE BAKER’S SECRET takes us to a small village in Normandy during WWII. We follow Emma, her family, and the village as they live under the restraints of German occupation. The village citizens work together to stay alive and to help each other.Emma is a very strong female character that you can't help but sympathize with and fall in love with. She is someone you would love to have had in your village during WWII.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. 5/5This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.

The Baker’s Secret is about the experiences of a Normandy village under the Nazis. It aspires to be a kind of fable and its whimsical chatty tone (not quite of the “dear reader” variety but not far off) irritated me until I got used to it. I was suspicious that the author was trying to cash in on the success of The Book Thief and All the Light We cannot See – world war two as adult fairy story. All the characters are both larger and smaller than life – ordinary people who have been given an exaggerated defining trait, often of a comic nature. There’s a mad boy who climbs trees, a wastrel who sleeps with pigs, a priest who appears sympathetic to the Nazis. An odd thing about this novel is there aren’t any resolutions to the few mysteries it poses. At the end of the day there’s little at stake save the safety of the characters. No subplots of note. Eventually I did begin to enjoy the story but I’m not sure about this new trend of moondusting what the Nazis did. There were one or two moments when the feelgood fairy story tone of this jarred. For me an accomplished rather than an inspired novel. 3.5 stars.

I read a lot of WWII fiction and this is one of the best that I've read that concentrates on the suffering of a small town in France during the occupation. The people in the town don't have any real idea of what is going on in the big picture of the war, they mainly know how it is affecting them to have German troops occupying their town and ruling their lives.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.

There are many stories still to be told about World War 2, and I love to read as many of them as I can. The Baker’s Secret ranks at the top of my list of books about this era along with Jillian Cantor’s The Lost Letter (out in June 2017). Stephen Kiernan’s writing is beautiful and magical, and his characters are authentic and brave beyond words. The story takes place in Vergers, a French town on the Normandy coast on the eve of D-Day. The town is occupied by the Nazis who have beaten down the townspeople with countless acts of cruelty including rationing food to the point that everyone is slowly starving. Even after digesting countless novels about Europe during World War 2, I am still stunned and angered by the intentional and horrific cruelty the Nazis inflicted on anyone who crossed their paths, including the people living in the various places they occupied. The opening portion of this book focuses on several such incidents which made me worry the entire book would be very depressing. However, as the story progresses, Kiernan tells the wonderful tale of the courageous baker Emmanuelle and her fellow villagers who worked to defy the Nazis in their own subtle ways. The Baker’s Secret is still a tear jerker (have plenty of tissues handy!), but the book’s message is one of optimism and the ability of humans to overcome even the most tragic circumstances. The ending of the book is phenomenal. I cannot say much more without spoiling the story, but once you hit the last 80 or so pages be prepared to do nothing else but read until you finish this wonderful book. I highly, highly recommend The Baker’s Secret. It is truly a must-read. Thanks to Great Thoughts, Great Readers and the publisher for my copy of this ARC.

Heartbreaking and inspiring. A beautifully written read that's exceptionally moving.

This novel takes place near the end of WWII but it is not a war story. It is a story of survival. Twenty two year old Emma is an apprentice to Jewish master baker, Ezra, in a small Normandy Coastal village which has been under Nazi occupation 4 years. Each day 22 year old Emma gets a small ration of flour arranged by the German comandante who has ordered her to bake 12 baguette loaves for himself and his army. But Emma has a secret: she has discovered she can make 14 loaves of bread by adding finely ground straw to the flour. While pessimistic about ever receiving any help, let alone rescue, from the Allies, Emma brings hope to neighbors and friends by putting her life on the line and distributing the two extra loaves to her townspeople, many of whom are starving to death. She gradually establishes a small bartering network, delivering other hidden supplies. "She uses ingenuity, intelligence, wit and grit to help her fellow villagers survive the occupation and the torture and daily torment that the German's bring upon them. While many of the village's men are fighting elsewhere, Emma wages her own quiet war and proves that heroes come in many forms." The development of each of the characters is well rounded, superb. I will not forget Emma, Ezra, Odette, Meme, Monkey Boy, or "The Goat." The book is both heartbreaking and uplifting, especially near the end, when Emma and Monkey Boy are sitting in the tree watching the Normandy D-Day invasion. "Emma suffered daily for friends and neighbors. They {the allied forces} were doing it for strangers, throwing themselves on that beach, slaughtered until the sea ran dark, and another wave came, and was slaughtered, and another, whole cities of men. They had never met Emma, she would never meet them, and still another wave.It was so humbling, Emma clung to the tree and did not think she could continue to breathe. The weight of their sacrifice might crush her. Here they had died, and up the beach they were still dying, in flocks and willingly for the idea that she, Emma herself, and her friends and family and neighbors, ought to live in freedom. Who on earth deserved such a gift?" A few months ago I decided I was through with WWII books, but The Baker's Secret was my bookclub's February choice so I was obligated, and I'm so glad. This was a joy to read!

The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan shines a spotlight on the resilience of humanity amid the brutality of war. At times it’s tempting to look away, to ignore the rawness of survival, to pause the bleak hopelessness that clouds Emma’s life. It’s painful to see the abuses of the church’s Monsignor – a man who should, by his very job description, be the source of hope and integrity in the occupied village. The honesty is graphic in places, discreet in others, and in every aspect of the story humanity’s fierce will to survive is both inspiring and sobering.I loved reading about Emma’s craftiness in figuring out how best to help the starving and otherwise needy villagers (thanks to the Nazi occupation) all while avoiding detection. She vehemently denies being part of the Resistance, yet it’s her work that enables the local Resistance movement to thrive. While harsh and bitter loss follows her, Emma’s strong will remains resilient. Her grandmother is my favorite character in the book and I often wanted to stop reading just to hug her.The writing is beautiful, almost poetic, with haunting lines such as: “The guttural ruled the elegant, the command replaced persuasion, the shout overwhelmed the subtle.”And this description of what the Allied invasion meant to the people of France, especially to Emma: “The weight of their sacrifice might crush her. Here they had died, and up the beach they were still dying, in flocks and willingly for the idea that she, Emma herself, and her friends and family and neighbors, ought to live in freedom. Who on earth deserved such a gift?”Bottom Line: The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan is exquisite in its prose and authentic in its execution. Its reality is painful, yes, but inspiring at the same time, and readers will gain a deeper understanding of both the occupation of France and the importance of D-Day and the subsequent Allied sacrifices. Keep a tissue box handy, but read this book with hope, hope that Emma doesn’t have. You already know what happened on June 6, 1944, but now see it with fresh eyes from the heart of a young woman who didn’t dare believe it was possible yet helped make it so.(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)See my review at Reading Is My SuperPower

I love reading books based on WWII, but it also takes a lot of me as I really can't imagine living through the horrors of war - it makes me so thankful for my secure life.This book was heartbreaking, I amost DNF'd it a few times as I couldn't handle the violence. Kiernan didn't mince the atrocities of war to both humans and animals. The main character Emma came across cold and aloof at times, but considering the environment in which she lived, it was very realistic as survival for herself and her community was her goal.While the majority of the book was depressing IMO, the ending was uplifting and sent a message of hope for future generations.

Absorbing. Heart-wrenching. Eloquent. This novel describes a time period when the folks in a small French village are oppressed by invaders, betrayed by collaborators, beaten & beaten down & treated like animals. Though the strong ones who resist and try to stand for right are killed & shipped off first, they do inspire those left behind. So the story focuses on the overlooked ones---the women, children, weak & elderly---who rise above fear & selfishness to help each other survive and maybe commit a bit of sabotage as well. And it all begins with one determined young woman. Trained by a master baker, Emmanuelle is reduced to preparing daily baguettes for Nazi headquarters. She quickly realizes that if she can find additives to stretch her dough farther, the crusts of bread she struggles to produce can keep her fellow villagers alive. Soon others join in, risking themselves & sacrificing what they have to provide for the needs of all. Eventually, they lose hope in an invasion and resign themselves to a slow death. But then the amazing day comes, and the characters' reactions to D-Day are authentic and moving. A great performance by narrator Cassandra Campbell.