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Un goût de cannelle et d'espoir
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2012)Allemagne, 1944. Malgré les restrictions, les pâtisseries fument à la boulangerie Schmidt. Entre ses parents patriotes, sa sœur volontaire au Lebensborn et son prétendant haut placé dans l'armée nazie, la jeune Elsie, 16 ans, vit de cannelle et d'insouciance. Jusqu'à cette nuit de Noël, où vient toquer à sa porte un petit garçon juif, échappé des camps...
Soixante ans plus tard, au Texas, la journaliste Reba Adams passe devant la vitrine d'une pâtisserie allemande, celle d'Elsie... Et le reportage qu'elle prépare n'est rien en comparaison de la leçon de vie qu'elle s'apprête à recevoir.
Soixante ans plus tard, au Texas, la journaliste Reba Adams passe devant la vitrine d'une pâtisserie allemande, celle d'Elsie... Et le reportage qu'elle prépare n'est rien en comparaison de la leçon de vie qu'elle s'apprête à recevoir.
491 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 24, 2012
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28769 people want to read
About the author
Sarah McCoy
15 books1,284 followersSARAH McCOY is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of eight books. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Lit Hub, Huffington Post, Read It Forward, and other publications. She hosted the NPR WSNC Radio program “Bookmarked with Sarah McCoy” and is the founder of The McCoy Grant. Sarah taught English writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. She lives with her husband Doc B, dog Gilly, and cat Tutu in North Carolina.
Connect with Sarah on Instagram at @SarahMMcCoy, on her Facebook Fan Page, Goodreads, or via www.sarahmccoy.com.
Connect with Sarah on Instagram at @SarahMMcCoy, on her Facebook Fan Page, Goodreads, or via www.sarahmccoy.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,380 reviews
August 7, 2014
It seems to be a trend - stories with alternating narratives of the past and present. I know that for some this mechanism has gotten tiresome but I happen to really enjoy the blending of the past and present, the connecting of stories and characters from different times. The place and the circumstances are almost always different and if this is done well, there is something that grabs me as the stories are brought together. Sarah McCoy has done just that in this moving novel set in El Paso Texas in 2007 and WW II Nazi Germany.
I almost always like the past story more than the present and this was the case here with the moving story of Elsie and her family during WW II in Garmish, Germany. The perspective of how the war impacted the Germans, even Nazi supporters is an interesting one as well as heart breaking as you see what happens to Elsie's sister Hazel and her family. The historic part of the story unfolds in several ways - letters between Elsie and her sister Hazel, third person narrative and in what Elsie tells Reba. The story does focus on the plight of the Jews as well as we see the courage and humanity of a teenage Elsie attempt to save a young Jewish boy bringing great risk for her family.
I was also touched by Reba's story taking place in 2007 El Paso, Texas. She has had a less than happy family life, growing up with a father who has suffered the emotional and mental consequences of the Vietnam War and a mother and sister who seem to be in denial over the problem. Reba, herself seems to be in denial about her true feelings for her fiancé, Riki, or at least unsure of what she really wants. She is a writer looking for that feel good Christmas story when she meets Elsie and her daughter, Jane and the story of Elsie, the baker’s daughter comes to life.
While there is the death, sadness, hunger, the toll on Elsie's family, the sadness in Reba's family and the timely inclusion of the illegal immigrant issue, there are moments that shine reflecting, family, love, friendship and caring people. I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend it.
April 18, 2021
One of my all time favorites..Like "Those Who Save Us" you'll learn what German women endured during Hitler's reign...yet, the story is completely different and well worth reading...discussing the Lebensborn program which is shrouded in secrecy.
March 24, 2017
ehhhhh, I thought this book was ok. I think the author had a theme (parallels that highlight that the moral high ground isn't always defined by a bright line, whether US border patrol or a German soldier or citizen--pretty ridiculous)and executed against it. The writing was really lacking for me. The parallels felt forced, the characters fell flat, and the book overall came across as a little contrived and even trite. The characters felt caricature-ish (southern writer with depressed dad has trouble trusting a relationship, plucky German girl fights the regime without really knowing why, militaristic German boy learns his lesson, American doctor saves the day, good-hearted Hispanic Border Patrol character struggles with the job). There are two plot lines in this book, and neither was well-developed. And the connection between the two wasn't clear--the modern characters never really talk about what happened in WWII, there was one interview where Elsie (the German) and Reba (the reporter) start to talk about the past (which seemed forced and unrealistic--who would even open that can of worms with a basic stranger? Especially a reporter!?), but it's never really tied together.
I'd recommend The Lost Wife, or Beasts in the Garden of Eden before this one. For being a WWII book, it was a light, quick read, however. But it just wasn't for me.
I'd recommend The Lost Wife, or Beasts in the Garden of Eden before this one. For being a WWII book, it was a light, quick read, however. But it just wasn't for me.
December 10, 2011
I fell in love with the character Elise from the very beginning. From the past, in her homeland of Nazi Germany to her current life in El Paso, Texas, the connecting thread a bakery and the baked goods that sustain her and her families souls. The present story is also interesting with a woman unsure of the future and her fiance, who works for the border patrol and like Elise in the past begins questioning if what he and his country is doing is right. The cruelty of Nazi Germany, the saving of one little Jewish boy and modern day immigration amid the indifference of a people who can't or won't question whether the decisions being made are in anyway inhumane. This is a novel that warms the heart and leaves one with the lingering feelings of hope.
March 1, 2021
In The Baker's Daughter, Sarah McCoy writes of Elsie, a German girl whose sheltered life is upended by the arrival of a Jewish boy on her doorstep. The story is illuminated by its telling 60 years later by Elsie to a writer If you love World War II fiction and have not read this book, you are missing out!
February 25, 2012
I fell in love with this novel that not only told a compelling story of one of the strongest, most likeable female characters I’ve read, but did so with language that was delicious enough to eat (the baking themes and metaphors were melt-in-your-mouth good). I seriously could not get enough.
McCoy is a master of weaving concurring plots – one set in ’40s Nazi Germany and a parallel plot set in 2007-08 Texas. The book was part historical fiction (readers are introduced to the unscrupulous Nazi Lebensborn project that aimed to increase the country’s declining German population) and part contemporary women’s fiction. The novel is always character-driven, never reading as too factually ‘dense’, and draws the reader through many nail-biting scenes.
The main characters, Elsie and Reba, take unforgettable journeys that lead them to internal growth and introspection, as well as self-understanding. Circumstances bring these two women together in near-present day Texas, braiding together a formidable tale of loss, love, sacrifice and hope -- and the impact of war (Reba's father was a Vietnam vet as well). Elsie’s experiences growing up in Nazi Germany and Reba’s life in a Texas border town lead both to a broader understanding of what humanity is and what happiness is. It also raises questions about loyalty to country and self, and the sometimes-gray lines between right and wrong, secrets and truth.
The novel was also part epistolary, including letters between Elsie and her sister, as well as correspondence between Reba and her sister. These letters added an element to the story that was so well done – just like the brötchen in Elsie’s bakery. (The bakery recipes at the end are simply another treat!)
Readers of literary fiction will not be disappointed with the exquisite language and literary techniques McCoy has so artfully mastered. This is a book I will re-read, and one that has found a permanent home on my library shelves.
McCoy is a master of weaving concurring plots – one set in ’40s Nazi Germany and a parallel plot set in 2007-08 Texas. The book was part historical fiction (readers are introduced to the unscrupulous Nazi Lebensborn project that aimed to increase the country’s declining German population) and part contemporary women’s fiction. The novel is always character-driven, never reading as too factually ‘dense’, and draws the reader through many nail-biting scenes.
The main characters, Elsie and Reba, take unforgettable journeys that lead them to internal growth and introspection, as well as self-understanding. Circumstances bring these two women together in near-present day Texas, braiding together a formidable tale of loss, love, sacrifice and hope -- and the impact of war (Reba's father was a Vietnam vet as well). Elsie’s experiences growing up in Nazi Germany and Reba’s life in a Texas border town lead both to a broader understanding of what humanity is and what happiness is. It also raises questions about loyalty to country and self, and the sometimes-gray lines between right and wrong, secrets and truth.
The novel was also part epistolary, including letters between Elsie and her sister, as well as correspondence between Reba and her sister. These letters added an element to the story that was so well done – just like the brötchen in Elsie’s bakery. (The bakery recipes at the end are simply another treat!)
Readers of literary fiction will not be disappointed with the exquisite language and literary techniques McCoy has so artfully mastered. This is a book I will re-read, and one that has found a permanent home on my library shelves.
February 23, 2016
I probably need to shy away from anything that is written about Nazi Germany, but there is so much potential for good material there and so much excellence in some of the things already written that I find myself being pulled in again and again. Can you say "cliche"? You cannot humanize a man who runs a concentration camp by having him kill a fellow soldier who kills a Jewish woman while arresting her husband. Why can't you tell the story of a normal German family who find themselves almost automatically joining the Nazi party, but aren't fanatics, without having the story of a saved Jew interwoven? I doubt the American servicemen were so charming that every German girl fell hopelessly in love with one look. She might have explored the Lebensborn Progam, which is introduced as a side track, and take a route that isn't already over-trodden, but she didn't.
I'm sorry to say that I found her characters stilted and I never felt connected to any of them. The bouncing between then and now, with the parallel stories of Elsie (our WWII German) and Reba (our modern day American) distracted rather than added to the story. Had she stuck to Elsie's story alone, I might have remained a bit more engaged, but the stops and starts killed whatever chance there was of caring for the characters.
Then there was the attempt to draw similarities between the Nazi treatment of Jews and the mission of the border patrol in Texas. She may see those as two sides of the same coin, but it was ludicrous in my mind. Two very different issues that should be treated as such. One group is trying to destroy an entire segment of the population by murdering them...the other is trying to protect a national border from illegal entry. You might find flaws in the later and you can surely find tragedy there, but they are far from having anything in common.
I considered DNFing at several points but stuck it out to the end. It didn't really matter, she had lost me far before the end.
I'm sorry to say that I found her characters stilted and I never felt connected to any of them. The bouncing between then and now, with the parallel stories of Elsie (our WWII German) and Reba (our modern day American) distracted rather than added to the story. Had she stuck to Elsie's story alone, I might have remained a bit more engaged, but the stops and starts killed whatever chance there was of caring for the characters.
Then there was the attempt to draw similarities between the Nazi treatment of Jews and the mission of the border patrol in Texas. She may see those as two sides of the same coin, but it was ludicrous in my mind. Two very different issues that should be treated as such. One group is trying to destroy an entire segment of the population by murdering them...the other is trying to protect a national border from illegal entry. You might find flaws in the later and you can surely find tragedy there, but they are far from having anything in common.
I considered DNFing at several points but stuck it out to the end. It didn't really matter, she had lost me far before the end.
May 22, 2013
What to say? It really had the potential to be a great novel, but the non-chronological jumping around between families felt like a chore. I quite literally could not have cared any less about Reba and Riki and I wish they had been left out of the book altogether. After reading a bio of the author I realize that they were meant to be loosely based on her own experience, but truthfully, I found them to be annoying. I felt that the author was trying to make a parallel between the US Border Patrol and Hitler's SS, but again...really? The other complaint I have about it may be limited to the Kindle edition, but I could not even read the chapter headers because they were written vertically and got completely lost in the margins the way the Kindle is set up.
A disappointment. I would gladly have given a better review if the story had only focused on Elsie and at-war and post-war Germany.
A disappointment. I would gladly have given a better review if the story had only focused on Elsie and at-war and post-war Germany.
September 12, 2014
No one is good or bad by birth or nation or religion. Inside, we are all masters and slaves, rich and poor, perfect and flawed.
I really enjoyed this story about Elsie living in WWII Germany. The book shows that all Germans were not active in the atrocities, and that many families were trying to live their normal lives. Some of them were also affected by things like the Lebensborn program. The aim of this program was to increase the Germanic/Nordic population. It was basically a place where racially pure woman got to "meet" and have children with SS officers. These children were then taken by the SS and became children of the Fatherland. It must have been quite difficult believing in your country and Hitler, and then with time only realizing what exactly was happening, and what horrors was being committed. For me this is what the author does best in this book - showing that it's very easy to judge other people, but that we can't judge as we were not there, and have no idea how we would have acted. I also liked the fact the book is not overly sentimental.
Although I though Reba's story (Texas, 2007) wasn't as strong as Elsie's I was still very interested in reading about the effect of a Bipolar parent, US immigration issues and Dia de los muertos (day of the dead).
I recommend this book to anyone who liked The Storyteller or other similar WWII novels.
How new and unknowing their minds are to the world's history. I wonder if it is better for them to remain that way - innocent and naive. Should we bury our memory barbs to keep them from piercing budding hearts? No doubt they will encounter their own tragedies in due time. Or should we warn our children that the world is harsh and men can be wicked? Warn them so that they take care to guard each other and seek out compassion
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September 16, 2011Can't wait to share this novel with you all!
April 1, 2013
Review Posted on Reading Lark 3/6/12: http://readinglark.blogspot.com/2012/...
The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy is one of those books that grabs you and refuses to let you go. There are so many elements that rise to the surface with this one that I found myself having to put the novel down and walk away for a bit to digest it all. I went through a wide range of emotions while reading this one. The Baker's Daughter is a story that spans three generations and focuses not only on the past, but is laced with implications for the present.
The format of the book was refreshing since it took so many forms. There is narrative, letters, emails, and recipes that help tell the story. One main story line surrounds the life Elise Schmidt, a German teen who helps run her family's bakery, as the Third Reich's power holds the land in its iron grasp. I thought I knew so much about the German experience during WWII, but this book forced me to look at things with a different perspective. I had never once stopped to consider what life was like for the German people. So many times I fell into the trap of believing that they all must have accepted Hitler and his agenda - and while this would hold true for some - there were just as many people in Germany who disagreed with Hitler. Voicing opinions in this time period could result in death so many had to hide their opposition. Elsie's story gives voice to those who had to hold their tongues during this time period.
I also really enjoyed it because most often women during this time period were not given equal rights and their experiences were seen to have little value. That becomes abundantly clear based on Elsie's older sister, Hazel's, experiences in the Lebensborn Program. I had never heard of this program before which led me to the internet to do some searching of my own. I have no idea how I missed the existence of this project. I have a degree in History, but my only in depth study of WWII was from the military and political standpoints. Again, I was exposed to the male view of these events and the female voices were left largely silent. Basically, The Lebensborn Program was a way to increase the ranks of the Aryan race. Young German women lived in homes and were basically used for breeding purposes. Once children were born, mothers were no longer integral in their lives beyond feeding. The children were raised and instructed by the SS. Babies who did not appear strong enough were often killed. The inclusion of this in the book was one of the things I found to be fascinating. Watching Hazel as she deals with the effects of this system was truly heart breaking and helped me see history from a different vantage point. There are so many other elements in the 1940's segments of the book that are also well written and intriguing, but this was the one that stuck out the most for me.
The second story line is set in 2007-2008 in El Paso, Texas. Elsie is now an elderly woman running a bakery in the border town and she is being interviewed for a local piece on Christmas traditions by Reba Adams. Reba has her own set of issues - including an engagement ring that she chooses to wear around her neck rather than on her finger. Finding Elise and her daughter, Jane, marks the beginning of a transition for Reba that will help her find out who she really is and what makes her happy. Reba's fiancee, Riki, is also an important fixture within the contemporary segments of the book. He is a Mexican American who watched his parents struggle in Mexico while awaiting their US citizenship. To prove that he is an American, he joins the US Border Patrol and hopes to help others see that there is a right way and a wrong way to get to America. However, after many nights on the job and some heart wrenching moments he starts to realize that not everything is so black and white.
I found it so compelling that McCoy chose to tell these two types of stories along side of one another. I would never have thought that German experiences during WWII would work so well alongside the current debate about immigration to the United States from Mexico. It also really made me stop and think about what life is like for those who are desperately seeking admittance into the land of the free. I appreciate that McCoy is shining a light on something in society that truly needs a solution. I can see the reasoning behind both those that support stricter immigration laws and those who want to cross the border. I don't pretend to have answers to how we can solve this conflict, but I do think generating discussion and thought around the topic is crucial. Discrimination and prejudice are nasty beasts that have plagued humanity since the dawn of time. We can never truly quell their vicious nature until we learn to see those who are different from us as valuable.
In addition, I was also drawn to these characters and their struggles. In particular, I found myself relating to Reba. She is unhappy with her life, but can't quite put her finger on what's missing. She thinks if she can just move to California and just snag her dream job then everything will be fine. Reba even remarks that she'd, "always been melancholic and unsatisfied with nearly everything about herself" (pg. 32). I often have that mentality and I'm trying to break myself out of that way of thinking. I have so many wonderful things in my life, but sometimes I just crave those things that are slightly beyond my grasp. I think that is human nature, but the problem is some of us dwell on what's lacking rather than focus on what is right in front of us. Like Reba, I need to calm down, take a deep breath, and just enjoy living. There is so much heartache and hardship in the world; I need to be thankful that my life is comfortable and I am loved. I am learning to be comfortable in my own skin and I always find it some comforting to find characters who are going through the same struggles. Reba held up a mirror for me to explain my own flaws and think of ways to grow beyond what I see reflected.
The Baker's Daughter is a book with so many delicious layers written in compelling prose. It is a critique of love, the human spirit, and racism. It is also a look into the hearts and minds of strong women who have made impossible choices in the midst of bleak times. Ultimately, The Baker's Daughter is a triumph of the human heart and the impressions we make on the lives of others. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction, women's history, and those looking for critiques on families and love. I don't think its possible for me to capture in this review how much I loved this book and how deeply it spoke to my heart.
In closing, I'd like to leave you with a quote that really spoke to me: "The marks on our lives are like music notes on the page - they sing a song" (pg. 123). I am inspired to go forth and make sure the marks I leave in my encounters with others will produce beautiful harmonies.
One Last Gripe: I wanted to know more about Josef and the ship. What truly happened?
My Favorite Thing About This Book: Learning new things about WWII and the current immigration debate
First Sentence: Long after the downstairs oven had cooled to the touch and the upstairs had grown warm with bodies cocooned in cotton sheets, she slipped her feet from beneath the thin coverlet and quietly made her way through the darkness, neglecting her slippers for fear that their clip might wake her sleeping husband.
Favorite Character: Elsie
Least Favorite Character: Major Kremer
The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy is one of those books that grabs you and refuses to let you go. There are so many elements that rise to the surface with this one that I found myself having to put the novel down and walk away for a bit to digest it all. I went through a wide range of emotions while reading this one. The Baker's Daughter is a story that spans three generations and focuses not only on the past, but is laced with implications for the present.
The format of the book was refreshing since it took so many forms. There is narrative, letters, emails, and recipes that help tell the story. One main story line surrounds the life Elise Schmidt, a German teen who helps run her family's bakery, as the Third Reich's power holds the land in its iron grasp. I thought I knew so much about the German experience during WWII, but this book forced me to look at things with a different perspective. I had never once stopped to consider what life was like for the German people. So many times I fell into the trap of believing that they all must have accepted Hitler and his agenda - and while this would hold true for some - there were just as many people in Germany who disagreed with Hitler. Voicing opinions in this time period could result in death so many had to hide their opposition. Elsie's story gives voice to those who had to hold their tongues during this time period.
I also really enjoyed it because most often women during this time period were not given equal rights and their experiences were seen to have little value. That becomes abundantly clear based on Elsie's older sister, Hazel's, experiences in the Lebensborn Program. I had never heard of this program before which led me to the internet to do some searching of my own. I have no idea how I missed the existence of this project. I have a degree in History, but my only in depth study of WWII was from the military and political standpoints. Again, I was exposed to the male view of these events and the female voices were left largely silent. Basically, The Lebensborn Program was a way to increase the ranks of the Aryan race. Young German women lived in homes and were basically used for breeding purposes. Once children were born, mothers were no longer integral in their lives beyond feeding. The children were raised and instructed by the SS. Babies who did not appear strong enough were often killed. The inclusion of this in the book was one of the things I found to be fascinating. Watching Hazel as she deals with the effects of this system was truly heart breaking and helped me see history from a different vantage point. There are so many other elements in the 1940's segments of the book that are also well written and intriguing, but this was the one that stuck out the most for me.
The second story line is set in 2007-2008 in El Paso, Texas. Elsie is now an elderly woman running a bakery in the border town and she is being interviewed for a local piece on Christmas traditions by Reba Adams. Reba has her own set of issues - including an engagement ring that she chooses to wear around her neck rather than on her finger. Finding Elise and her daughter, Jane, marks the beginning of a transition for Reba that will help her find out who she really is and what makes her happy. Reba's fiancee, Riki, is also an important fixture within the contemporary segments of the book. He is a Mexican American who watched his parents struggle in Mexico while awaiting their US citizenship. To prove that he is an American, he joins the US Border Patrol and hopes to help others see that there is a right way and a wrong way to get to America. However, after many nights on the job and some heart wrenching moments he starts to realize that not everything is so black and white.
I found it so compelling that McCoy chose to tell these two types of stories along side of one another. I would never have thought that German experiences during WWII would work so well alongside the current debate about immigration to the United States from Mexico. It also really made me stop and think about what life is like for those who are desperately seeking admittance into the land of the free. I appreciate that McCoy is shining a light on something in society that truly needs a solution. I can see the reasoning behind both those that support stricter immigration laws and those who want to cross the border. I don't pretend to have answers to how we can solve this conflict, but I do think generating discussion and thought around the topic is crucial. Discrimination and prejudice are nasty beasts that have plagued humanity since the dawn of time. We can never truly quell their vicious nature until we learn to see those who are different from us as valuable.
In addition, I was also drawn to these characters and their struggles. In particular, I found myself relating to Reba. She is unhappy with her life, but can't quite put her finger on what's missing. She thinks if she can just move to California and just snag her dream job then everything will be fine. Reba even remarks that she'd, "always been melancholic and unsatisfied with nearly everything about herself" (pg. 32). I often have that mentality and I'm trying to break myself out of that way of thinking. I have so many wonderful things in my life, but sometimes I just crave those things that are slightly beyond my grasp. I think that is human nature, but the problem is some of us dwell on what's lacking rather than focus on what is right in front of us. Like Reba, I need to calm down, take a deep breath, and just enjoy living. There is so much heartache and hardship in the world; I need to be thankful that my life is comfortable and I am loved. I am learning to be comfortable in my own skin and I always find it some comforting to find characters who are going through the same struggles. Reba held up a mirror for me to explain my own flaws and think of ways to grow beyond what I see reflected.
The Baker's Daughter is a book with so many delicious layers written in compelling prose. It is a critique of love, the human spirit, and racism. It is also a look into the hearts and minds of strong women who have made impossible choices in the midst of bleak times. Ultimately, The Baker's Daughter is a triumph of the human heart and the impressions we make on the lives of others. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction, women's history, and those looking for critiques on families and love. I don't think its possible for me to capture in this review how much I loved this book and how deeply it spoke to my heart.
In closing, I'd like to leave you with a quote that really spoke to me: "The marks on our lives are like music notes on the page - they sing a song" (pg. 123). I am inspired to go forth and make sure the marks I leave in my encounters with others will produce beautiful harmonies.
One Last Gripe: I wanted to know more about Josef and the ship. What truly happened?
My Favorite Thing About This Book: Learning new things about WWII and the current immigration debate
First Sentence: Long after the downstairs oven had cooled to the touch and the upstairs had grown warm with bodies cocooned in cotton sheets, she slipped her feet from beneath the thin coverlet and quietly made her way through the darkness, neglecting her slippers for fear that their clip might wake her sleeping husband.
Favorite Character: Elsie
Least Favorite Character: Major Kremer
September 8, 2012
Given the excellent reviews this book has received, I was disappointed. Sarah McCoy's story tracks the life of Elsie (the baker's daughter of the title) during World War II in Garmisch,Germany, where her family, stalwart National Socialists, runs a bakery, and in present day El Paso, Texas. In the El Paso segments, Elsie's story is subordinate to a plot line involving Reba, an American writer and Riki, a Latino border patrol agent. I guess the author's intent is that Reba learn to face life challenges from Elsie and her experiences, which certainly are challenging. Unfortunately, other than setting a few scenes in Elsie's El Paso bakery, not much is done to interconnect the stories. There aren't any conversations where Elise or her daughter tell the story to Reba - in fact, it's pretty clear Elsie doesn't talk about it a lot. So how does Reba get to know what happened, although it's implied that she does? And it's a pity, because the German story is a good one. I really liked those parts of the book. But Reba seemed like a contrivance and her trials totally extraneous, so every time she showed up I was irritated.
April 24, 2018
Exceptional story told from a unique perspective. Most of the stories I have read based during WWII are narratives of victims or relatives of victims of the Third Reich. In The Baker's Daughter, the tale is told of loyal citizens of Germany both during the war and in the present.
Told between the past and the present,Elsie and her family's emotions run the gamut from fervent nationalism and blind loyalty to doubt and fear as the war grinds on and the atrocities mount. And in the present we are treated to Elsie's future as she moves beyond the war. The depth of all the characters made for compelling reading.
And my knowledge of history grew deeper. I learned of Hitler's breeding program where young German women were used as literal incubators to further the Aryan nation.And in their callus disregard for life, those babies who were "defective" were terminated along with their mothers. I did not know of this atrocity against their own vulnerable youth.
Incredibly moving read.
Told between the past and the present,Elsie and her family's emotions run the gamut from fervent nationalism and blind loyalty to doubt and fear as the war grinds on and the atrocities mount. And in the present we are treated to Elsie's future as she moves beyond the war. The depth of all the characters made for compelling reading.
And my knowledge of history grew deeper. I learned of Hitler's breeding program where young German women were used as literal incubators to further the Aryan nation.And in their callus disregard for life, those babies who were "defective" were terminated along with their mothers. I did not know of this atrocity against their own vulnerable youth.
Incredibly moving read.
October 29, 2021
How to make a Baker's Daughter Multilayer Cake.
Ingredients:
-Four (or more) sympathetic perspectives.
-Two cups of pathos: one from WWII Germany, the other from modern Texas.
-One tablespoon of drama (easy to overdo it here.)
-A pinch of heartbreak and a dollop of humanity.
-As many descriptions of tempting German confections as will fit in your mixing bowl.
Stir the confection gently; you'll find the varied scenes and perspectives blend together quite naturally. Then bake for 280 brisk pages. The final confection should prove lightly sweet yet nourishing for the soul.
Edited 10/29/2021
Ingredients:
-Four (or more) sympathetic perspectives.
-Two cups of pathos: one from WWII Germany, the other from modern Texas.
-One tablespoon of drama (easy to overdo it here.)
-A pinch of heartbreak and a dollop of humanity.
-As many descriptions of tempting German confections as will fit in your mixing bowl.
Stir the confection gently; you'll find the varied scenes and perspectives blend together quite naturally. Then bake for 280 brisk pages. The final confection should prove lightly sweet yet nourishing for the soul.
Edited 10/29/2021
February 14, 2012
First thoughts after finishing: "What an emotional powerhouse!"
I love books that make me weep with sadness and feel such empathy to the characters...this book does that and so much more. I cracked the spine of The Baker's Daughter late in the morning on Saturday and finished it as the sun peeked over the horizon announcing the arrival of Sunday. I was so thankful that I was the only one awake during those first early hours because I was able to be alone with my thoughts after I finished the book. The last quarter of the book had left me with tears streaming down my face and once again realizing that we can NOT judge others....it's not our place. What struck me with such force was something that the main protagonist said when asked if she was a Nazi. She replied, "I am a German." I think that over the years, the general public has lumped being German into automatically assuming they were all Nazi's too. Instead, this book brings to light how many of them became compliant to Hitler's propaganda and laws because of FEAR. Fear of death to self, fear of the death of loved ones, and fear of the death of their way of life. I learned about the Lebensborn Program and couldn't believe the atrocities that were committed against the German mothers and the children the women gave birth to. The author made me feel some sadness about Josef, a SS Officer. This character was someone who had supervised the murder of thousands of Jews and fellow Germans, but Sarah McCoy humanized him and showed the inner demons that he carried within his black soul. She showed the other side of the war...the German side. She didn't make excuses for any of their behaviors, but rather gave the reader an insider's view of what happens when a human is trapped and feels as if they have no options. Elsie is a character that I loved from the moment I met her and she's one that I think may have embodied many unspoken heroic acts of Germans. She hides an emaciated Jewish boy, gives him shelter, food, attention, and love. She is what it means to be human in the face of war. She is what humans try to aspire to when given no options but death or doing something against their moral fiber. Even knowing that death may be her ending, it doesn't stop her from loving and protecting this child. Her story will stay with me...I have her tucked under my heart.
I loved everything about the bakery in Germany and the bakery in Texas. The aroma of baking bread, cakes, and cookies says comfort and home to me. I'm sure that is how Elsie felt when she was busy with the daily chores of making the baked goods. This was a beautiful thread throughout the book and really helped to connect the past with the present. The recipes at the end of the book are calling my name!
I have to admit that Reba's story really didn't do much for me at all. I liked how the past influenced the future and the way the author tried to tie the two stories together. But overall I'm not really sure if Reba/Riki's storyline added to my overall enjoyment of the book. I was more than happy to stay in the past and learn more about Elsie's life and what eventually happened to the people she loved.
Recommend? I would give this book to anyone who is looking for a story that will touch them on a very human level. This is a tale of love, choices, hardship, heartache, and hope. It puts another face on the ravages of war and makes a person stop and contemplate a very big and heavy question.....What Would You Do?
February 8, 2012
I absolutely loved this book. I loved the parallel stories although I enjoyed Elsie's a bit more. The writing was great, really grabs you and emerge you into the story line right away. I could hardly put it down. The book made me gasp out loud and cry at parts. Definitely a great read, highly recommend it. It's a book that you can't stop thinking about even after it's over. Loved it.
January 15, 2012
There seems to be a lot of anticipation about to soon to be released novelThe Baker’s Daughter and I can understand why. Split between past and present, Nazi Germany in the last year of World War II and present day El Paso, Texas, it is the story of two very different women and how they each find themselves.
Elsie Schmidt,16, is the second daughter of bakers in Garmisch, Germany. Her older sister, Hazel, has been in the Lebensborn Program to produce strong, racially pure babies for the Fatherland since her fiancee was killed. Their young son Julius is also there being educated in Nazi dogma.
The Schmidt’s have always been supporters of Hitler and his policies, and when Lieutenant Colonel Josef Hub, a family friend since Peter’s death, invites Elsie to the Nazis Weihnachten (Christmas) party, they are thrilled. At the party, Joseph asks Elsie to marry him, giving her a ring that has a Hebrew in it. Elsie doesn’t know what to do - on the one hand, he provides the bakery with supplies and the family with protection, on the other hand, he is much older and she doesn’t want to marry him.
At the same party, a young Jewish boy with a breath-takingly beautiful voice is brought in to entertain. Elsie later learns he will be killed as soon as he is taken back to the concentration camp he was in. When a General Kremer attacks Else is an alley she escaped to for some air, it is the boys voice that save her. Later that night, when the boy shows up at the back door of the bakery, their lives are changed forever.
Years later, in 2007,Reba Adams, a journalist, is trying to get in touch with the now elderly Elsie Schmidt to do an article on Christmas traditions around the world. She wants to talk to Elsie about German traditions. But her interviews turn out the be very different from what Reba had expected. And again lives are changed.
The Baker’s Daughter is about the journey two women must make in order to find their true selves. And even though the time and facts of their individual journeys are different, the outcomes are very much the same.
There is a very diverse cast of characters in this novel, some nice, some not, but all very relevant in the lives of Elsie and Reba. I felt more connected to Elsie’s story and found it much more compelling than Reba’s story. I believe that is because we are give more details about her life and follow it from 1944 to the present, whereas we learn about Reba’s past mainly from her thoughts and they are not as thoroughly explored. I also found myself more drawn to Elsie than I did to Reba and maybe that is why.
Don’t get me wrong, however. I really enjoyed reading The Baker’s Daughter, and found it hard to put down. I found it to be a well researched story and it does bring out a disturbing aspect of the Lebensborn Program that many people may not know about.
A bonus: at the end of the novel, there is a collection of recipes to bake that are mentioned throughout the story, some from Elsie’s families bakery in Germany, so new ones from life in El Paso, and all, I am sure, scrumptious.
This book is recommended for readers age 15 and up.
This book was received as an E-ARC from Netgalley.com
Elsie Schmidt,16, is the second daughter of bakers in Garmisch, Germany. Her older sister, Hazel, has been in the Lebensborn Program to produce strong, racially pure babies for the Fatherland since her fiancee was killed. Their young son Julius is also there being educated in Nazi dogma.
The Schmidt’s have always been supporters of Hitler and his policies, and when Lieutenant Colonel Josef Hub, a family friend since Peter’s death, invites Elsie to the Nazis Weihnachten (Christmas) party, they are thrilled. At the party, Joseph asks Elsie to marry him, giving her a ring that has a Hebrew in it. Elsie doesn’t know what to do - on the one hand, he provides the bakery with supplies and the family with protection, on the other hand, he is much older and she doesn’t want to marry him.
At the same party, a young Jewish boy with a breath-takingly beautiful voice is brought in to entertain. Elsie later learns he will be killed as soon as he is taken back to the concentration camp he was in. When a General Kremer attacks Else is an alley she escaped to for some air, it is the boys voice that save her. Later that night, when the boy shows up at the back door of the bakery, their lives are changed forever.
Years later, in 2007,Reba Adams, a journalist, is trying to get in touch with the now elderly Elsie Schmidt to do an article on Christmas traditions around the world. She wants to talk to Elsie about German traditions. But her interviews turn out the be very different from what Reba had expected. And again lives are changed.
The Baker’s Daughter is about the journey two women must make in order to find their true selves. And even though the time and facts of their individual journeys are different, the outcomes are very much the same.
There is a very diverse cast of characters in this novel, some nice, some not, but all very relevant in the lives of Elsie and Reba. I felt more connected to Elsie’s story and found it much more compelling than Reba’s story. I believe that is because we are give more details about her life and follow it from 1944 to the present, whereas we learn about Reba’s past mainly from her thoughts and they are not as thoroughly explored. I also found myself more drawn to Elsie than I did to Reba and maybe that is why.
Don’t get me wrong, however. I really enjoyed reading The Baker’s Daughter, and found it hard to put down. I found it to be a well researched story and it does bring out a disturbing aspect of the Lebensborn Program that many people may not know about.
A bonus: at the end of the novel, there is a collection of recipes to bake that are mentioned throughout the story, some from Elsie’s families bakery in Germany, so new ones from life in El Paso, and all, I am sure, scrumptious.
This book is recommended for readers age 15 and up.
This book was received as an E-ARC from Netgalley.com
August 5, 2014
This book was one of my favorite reads! Very similar to The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult but told more from a German living in Germany during WWII. I loved the 2 different stories being told especially going back in time. I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading about WWII in Germany. Brilliant!!
July 7, 2014
3.5 stars.
1942-1945 Nazi Germany is the setting for Elsie's remembrances, when she worried daily about the fate of her parents, their bakery business, and her older sister who is off having perfect Aryan babies to give away to the SS. What an insane program. What an insane time in history. It was closely paired with the modern-day story of Riki of the El Paso border patrol unit and his girlfriend Reba. The author imaginatively compares the treatment of the Jews to the treatment of illegals being smuggled into Texas. Reba is Riki's girlfriend and a writer who wants to tell Elsie's story as part of a Christmas traditions piece her magazine is doing. Except Elsie remembers her Germany as wartorn and hateful of the Jews, not many "traditional" events when you're worrying about where your next meal will come from. What Riki wants is to follow our immigration laws to the letter, but feeling maybe sometimes it's not so cut and dry. In both cases, human lives were at stake and gross errors in judgement will result in tragedy.
As usually happens with these stories that go from war time to present, I was much more engaged during the parts that took place before, in Germany, than I was in the present day story. Elsie was a truly good, lovable character. Reba just never grew on me, at all. She seemed immature and disingenuous.
1942-1945 Nazi Germany is the setting for Elsie's remembrances, when she worried daily about the fate of her parents, their bakery business, and her older sister who is off having perfect Aryan babies to give away to the SS. What an insane program. What an insane time in history. It was closely paired with the modern-day story of Riki of the El Paso border patrol unit and his girlfriend Reba. The author imaginatively compares the treatment of the Jews to the treatment of illegals being smuggled into Texas. Reba is Riki's girlfriend and a writer who wants to tell Elsie's story as part of a Christmas traditions piece her magazine is doing. Except Elsie remembers her Germany as wartorn and hateful of the Jews, not many "traditional" events when you're worrying about where your next meal will come from. What Riki wants is to follow our immigration laws to the letter, but feeling maybe sometimes it's not so cut and dry. In both cases, human lives were at stake and gross errors in judgement will result in tragedy.
As usually happens with these stories that go from war time to present, I was much more engaged during the parts that took place before, in Germany, than I was in the present day story. Elsie was a truly good, lovable character. Reba just never grew on me, at all. She seemed immature and disingenuous.
October 1, 2014
The Baker's Daughter is a story of two young women on the brink of realizing their future. Elsie is the daughter of a German couple who own a bakery. They are doing the best they can to provide for themselves and their community. They are kept safe by a German officer who wishes to make Elsie his bride. Though she doesn't love him, she accepts his proposal to protect her family. Her sister Hazel, pregnant and unmarried, becomes part of the Lebensborn program, giving her children over to be raised and trained by the Nazi government. Elsie is strong of character, but it is not always easy to do the right thing surrounded by so much evil. Elsie finds her way to America and opens a bakery in Texas. Reba is a young journalist assigned to write a Christmas story about Dixie's bakery. She carries her own demons and hurts from her past. She protects and guards her heart, but with the help of Elsie and her daughter Jane, Reba confronts her fears. Reba's boyfriend, Riki, is facing his own doubts and conflicts over the work he does as a border patrol agent. A story of triumph when one's actions are guided by love. All the descriptions of the wonderful baked goods made my mouth water.
March 27, 2016
I would definitely give this book a four-star review - the historical thread was beautifully written and Sarah McCoy managed to recreate the German reality in an amazing way. It was touching and carefully drawn, with great eye for unusual detail.
However, in my opinion she committed one huge mistake with the contemporary plot (in Reba's and Ricky story) by trying to compare the American-Mexican border situation to German situation during the World War II. I understand it was not intentional in any way, but there is no scale to compare Nazi cruelties and Nazi crimes against humanity with anything else, especially when making a political statement of illegality.
However, in my opinion she committed one huge mistake with the contemporary plot (in Reba's and Ricky story) by trying to compare the American-Mexican border situation to German situation during the World War II. I understand it was not intentional in any way, but there is no scale to compare Nazi cruelties and Nazi crimes against humanity with anything else, especially when making a political statement of illegality.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : The Baker's Daughter - Nevisande : Sarah McCoy - ISBN : 307460207 - ISBN13 : 9780307460202 - Dar 304 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2012
August 11, 2019
Wat een prachtig boek.
Het verhaal speelt zich af in een bakkerij tijdens de oorlogsperiode in Garmisch Duitsland en in het heden in El Paco Texas waar Reba een deadline heeft voor de plaatselijke krant waar ze een artikel moet schrijven over de kerstperiode in Duitsland. Daarvoor wil ze een gesprek met Elsie aanknopen om zo haar artikel tot stand te brengen maar zo ontstaat ook een hechte vriendschapsband met Elsie en haar dochter Jane. Anderzijds struggelt Reba ook met haar eigen demonen die ze moet zien te overwinnen namelijk haar gevoelen voor Rikki, de band met haar familie dat in Virginia woont. Langs de andere kant leren we ook het levensverhaal van Elsie kennen ten tijde van de oorlog. De moeilijke tijden, het gemis van haar zus Hazel , haar huwelijksaanzoek van Joseph en dan haar ontmoeting met Tobias het joodse jongetje. Naar het einde toe worden het verleden en het heden naar elkaar toe geweven en krijg je op al je vragen antwoorden. Ik hou niet zo van oorlogsverhalen maar deze verdient van mij wel de volle 5 sterren.
Het verhaal speelt zich af in een bakkerij tijdens de oorlogsperiode in Garmisch Duitsland en in het heden in El Paco Texas waar Reba een deadline heeft voor de plaatselijke krant waar ze een artikel moet schrijven over de kerstperiode in Duitsland. Daarvoor wil ze een gesprek met Elsie aanknopen om zo haar artikel tot stand te brengen maar zo ontstaat ook een hechte vriendschapsband met Elsie en haar dochter Jane. Anderzijds struggelt Reba ook met haar eigen demonen die ze moet zien te overwinnen namelijk haar gevoelen voor Rikki, de band met haar familie dat in Virginia woont. Langs de andere kant leren we ook het levensverhaal van Elsie kennen ten tijde van de oorlog. De moeilijke tijden, het gemis van haar zus Hazel , haar huwelijksaanzoek van Joseph en dan haar ontmoeting met Tobias het joodse jongetje. Naar het einde toe worden het verleden en het heden naar elkaar toe geweven en krijg je op al je vragen antwoorden. Ik hou niet zo van oorlogsverhalen maar deze verdient van mij wel de volle 5 sterren.
June 13, 2025
Oh que j’ai aimé ça se livre. J’ai trouvé les personnages attachants surtout Elsie et j’ai bien aimé les recettes qui a àla fin du livre. Bref une belle lecture 👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️
August 13, 2013
This historical novel focuses on a German family that supports Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich during WW II. This is the first time that I have read anything that is written from this perspective. I have read many titles that deal with the Jews and their persecution and murders. I have read many stories of Jewish survivors of this horror. I have also read the stories of "Righteous Gentiles" who saved the lives of many Jews, and I am currently reading several books about the great German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was ultimately executed due to his efforts against Hitler.
I had always assumed that the Germans who supported the Third Reich were monsters, but after reading "The Baker's Daughter", I realize that some of these citizens must have been "ordinary" people who were duped by Nazi propaganda and suffered in kind through death and degradation.
On a lighter note, I also enjoyed learning about all of the tasty recipes that were prepared by the German bakers both in the US and in Germany.
I had always assumed that the Germans who supported the Third Reich were monsters, but after reading "The Baker's Daughter", I realize that some of these citizens must have been "ordinary" people who were duped by Nazi propaganda and suffered in kind through death and degradation.
On a lighter note, I also enjoyed learning about all of the tasty recipes that were prepared by the German bakers both in the US and in Germany.
January 3, 2015
Un magnifique roman, un très gros coup de coeur. Une histoire qui traverse les générations de la seconde guerre mondiale jusqu’à aujourd’hui. C’est l’histoire de vies qui se croisent. Un roman qui évoque le courage, la possibilité de sauver l’autre, de trouver le bonheur et de vivre avec ses souvenirs.
Ma chronique : https://myprettybooks.wordpress.com/2...
Ma chronique : https://myprettybooks.wordpress.com/2...
September 20, 2024
This book is not worth reading. In fact, it is not worth writing this review, except in the hope that it will discourage people from wasting their time with it, or even better, cause those who regard this book highly, or even neutrally, to reconsider. I read it as part of a personal project to explore depictions of Jews in the Shoah by non-Jewish fiction writers. There is nothing surprising in this book, just the usual staggering historical inaccuracies and a recycling of familiar and demeaning tropes. Why I am screaming into this particular void, who knows.
The structure of this book is fairly straightforward. Two parallel timelines, one involving a German teenager named Elsie who saves a Jew during World War Two, and the other a present-day journalist named Reba who encounters Elsie as an elderly bakery owner in Texas. The writing is adequate in that there are no glaring errors of grammar or copyediting. It is below mediocre, though, in its inability to create believable characters whose actions are plausible within the boundaries of their personalities and historical strictures. I won’t focus on deficits in the writing, though, because my problem isn’t with mediocre or trashy books being written. My problem is with the apparently incurable need for Christian or culturally-Christian authors and readers to symbolically “save” Jews. This process always involves crafting Jewish characters that do not at all resemble Jews, but rather stereotyped fantasies of Jews whose purpose is to absolve the writer/reader of lingering guilt and fulfill the millennia-long mission of being “savior” to the Jews.
There is one Jewish character, Tobias. Let’s talk about how he never could have existed. He is a seven-year-old German speaking Jew newly arrived at Dachau with his family 1944. Starting in 1941, German Jews were deported to ghettos in countries newly conquered by Germany. From these ghettos, they were sent to death camps. It is hard to imagine how Tobias’ family ended up in Dachau. How he had a tattoo, when those were only done at Auschwitz. How he, seven, and his sister, five, survived selection. How, later on, an elderly German was able to get children smuggled out of Dachau with only a piece of jewelry or two as a bribe. How civilians found out about the death march to Tegernsee a month in advance. None of this could have happened. Why did the author choose Garmisch as a setting? No doubt because of her personal connections and because of the proximity of Steinhöring, center of the Lebensborn program, and a concentration camp, any concentration camp. It is, after all, much easier to cobble together an apologia for the behavior of Germans in Nazi Germany if you ignore what really happened.
Taking a closer look at sloppiness of Tobias’ story: It is snowing when he hides in Elsie’s house. How did the soldiers not see his tracks? In an old wooden house, hidden in a crawlspace between the walls, how was he so quiet that he did not arouse any suspicion? After a month of near total confinement and already malnourished, how was he able to come out and help Elsie bake? How did he have the strength and mobility for that, after being cramped in one place for so long? And how did he, a seven-year-old who could have known nothing other than ghettos and concentration camps, know how to bake so adeptly? It’s ridiculous. How could Elsie, despite only being a teen, be so stupid as to send Tobias out to bring in wood? And what are the chances that the person who discovers their secret is a kindly elderly neighbor who is hiding Jews in her attic?
The chances are vanishingly small. Look at the statistics for Righteous among the Nations in Germany:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteo...
Yad Vashem resources on Righteous Among the Nations are extensive. The author clearly did not consult them.
https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/r...
The few mentions of Judaism are not only inaccurate but further antisemitic stereotypes. Tobias refuses to eat a bratwurst that Elsie offers her. She expresses annoyance at the ungrateful Jew: “… it still frustrated and outright annoyed her that even now, in the midst of bloodshed and death, their customs took priority over his life.” The author is clearly unfamiliar with the concept of pikuach hanefesh, the idea that saving a life takes precedence over any other observances. Second of all, if he refuses to eat non-kosher meat, he should also refuse to eat bread without washing his hands ritually first. It is hard to imagine a starving child, a child who has known only hardship and displacement all his life, would turn down food. But all this is just a set up for the inevitable Christian moralizing. “From what Elsie had experienced of God, she knew he was more forgiving than any religion and more loving than any laws. She wished she could convince Tobias of it.” The stubborn Jew, clinging to cruel and unmerciful laws, is always and forever the default image that Christians conjure when they think of Jews.
Another inaccuracy comes when an adult Tobias, already a grandfather, writes to Elsie. “I pray the Birkhat HaGomel for you, my guardian angel. The first true and trustworthy friend on my path to salvation.” Here, the theme of Christian salvation is again explicit. But note the inaccurate use of Birkat haGomel, which the average reader will accept as a sign of authenticity and a touching cultural detail. Birkat haGomel is said in minyan, preferably a Torah service, shortly after one survives a life-threatening ordeal. It is a prayer of gratitude not to or about another human, but to G-d. Clearly there were no knowledgeable Jewish readers or editors involved in the publication process.
Another inauthentic note, Tobias named his daughter after Elsie. It is much more likely that he would name his daughter after his murdered mother, sister, grandmother, etc.
The plot is a product of the author’s own deep-seated need to absolve German civilians of complicity in the Holocaust, and furthermore, to create sympathy and understanding for Nazis who murdered Jews. To the author, those who enabled, participated in, or stood idly by during the Holocaust are not deserving of judgment or condemnation. A constantly repeated refrain throughout the book is “it is easy for outsiders to look back and make judgments” and “They [Nazis] weren’t all monsters… some even good men.” “The truth is, everyone has a dark side.” “But doesn’t everyone kind of hold their own above the others?” The book is structured for the very purpose of relativizing Nazism as something every group has their own version of. Reba’s boyfriend in the US Border Patrol, and her father in Vietnam, are framed as explicit parallels to Elsie’s fiancé, a highly placed Nazi SS officer. To further this relativizing of the Nazis’ atrocities, the author portrays non-Jewish Germans as equally victimized by the Nazi regime as Jews. In fact, because of the decentering of Jewish experience, the non-Jewish Germans come across as the primary victims. After all, the only Jewish character in the book survives. In order to recast the Germans as victims, the author constantly portrays the hatreds of the Nazis as a top-down imposition rather than an organic part of German society. Antisemitism, we are lead to believe, was not an endemic and historically-rooted problem before the Nazis gained power. The author would have done well to consult the vast body of literature regarding antisemitism in German society.
A great deal of the narrative is designed to create sympathy and understanding for Elsie’s SS fiancé. We are meant to see him as a decent man gone astray because of the pressures of his job. He feels sympathy towards Jews and has to constantly repeat refrains from Mein Kampf to steel himself for action. “It was time to act the part, despite all reservations and all personal convictions.” He did not perpetrate atrocities out of hatred. He was a good soldier and a good citizen, and how can one fault a man for giving his life to serve his nation? He was no monster; his life was a “blurry mosaic of right and wrong.” To emphasize his essential goodness, the author decides to have him eaten up by his conscience. He develops significant psychological and physical symptoms, and constant drug use is the only thing keeping him going. Witnessing the atrocities that he himself is committing “shakes his soul.” Eventually he commits suicide.
Tellingly, one of the Book Club questions at the end of the book calls on readers to discuss whether or not they sympathize with the SS officer. “Have you ever participated in something you didn’t believe in?” The questions call on readers to put themselves in the shoes of a Nazi, after a whole book devoted to sentimental inanities along the lines of “everyone has a dark side,” and repeated appeals to the reader to reserve judgment. After all, “Only God has enough of the story to judge our souls.” Years later, Elsie prays for the soul of her Nazi fiancé. “She had to believe that [forgiveness] was possible, even for the dead.” In the present-day timeline, Reba’s US Border Patrol boyfriend leaves his job, symbolically fulfilling the Nazi officer’s arch of redemption. Readers should ask themselves why the author is so committed to trivializing the Holocaust by drawing a parallel between the actions of Nazis and anything regrettable the readers themselves may have done. Incidentally, another of the Book Club questions asks readers to discuss the admirable features of the Lebensborn program, described quaintly as “communal living.”
Some may wonder why historical distortions are a big deal, given that this is after all fiction. When an author chooses a subject matter of such gravity as the attempted annihilation of an entire people, the author owes the people they are writing about the respect of not distorting their historical experience, and certainly not doing so for the purpose of entertainment or monetary profit, or for the purpose of a redemptive narrative to alleviate their own guilt. The actual horrors inflicted on Jews are watered down beyond recognition by an unwillingness to confront historical reality and a need to reframe the Holocaust in the context of a “feel good” story. Jews, in this type of story, aren’t real people. They are rhetorical devices who exist on the margins as projections of the author’s own ignorance, fully decentered from the story of their own persecution and destruction. Their purpose is to absolve the author and readers wholeheartedly of any guilt, and highlight by contrast the heroism and sacrifices of the non-Jews to whom they own their salvation.
There are many more criticisms one could make of this book. For example, the book also engages in gratuitous unaddressed racism that is used as joke punchlines in the present-day timeline: “I don’t believe in all that Hindu stuff – reincarnation and washing your face in cow piss.” And homophobia: Elsie expresses relief that her adult daughter is not a lesbian. The daughter suggests that lesbians exist only on the internet. No surprise that the present-day protagonist chooses Gone with the Wind as a comfort watch. There are multiple historical inaccuracies throughout, for example Garmisch was not occupied by Russian soldiers in World War One. It would be too exhausting to point them all out.
The book ends with a number of recipes from Elsie’s German bakery, each with a heartwarming little introduction. That, combined with the feel-good “saccharine sentimentality” (a writing affectation criticized by and yet constantly used by the author) that pervades this book, makes this what can only be termed a Cozy Holocaust novel. The Jew survives to sing the praises of his savior, the Nazi officer gets posthumous redemption, and everyone learns the valuable lesson that we cannot judge those who commit atrocities. That an author would be inspired to write such a book, that publishers would publish such a book, and that readers would enjoy such a book, is a sad reflection on society in general.
The structure of this book is fairly straightforward. Two parallel timelines, one involving a German teenager named Elsie who saves a Jew during World War Two, and the other a present-day journalist named Reba who encounters Elsie as an elderly bakery owner in Texas. The writing is adequate in that there are no glaring errors of grammar or copyediting. It is below mediocre, though, in its inability to create believable characters whose actions are plausible within the boundaries of their personalities and historical strictures. I won’t focus on deficits in the writing, though, because my problem isn’t with mediocre or trashy books being written. My problem is with the apparently incurable need for Christian or culturally-Christian authors and readers to symbolically “save” Jews. This process always involves crafting Jewish characters that do not at all resemble Jews, but rather stereotyped fantasies of Jews whose purpose is to absolve the writer/reader of lingering guilt and fulfill the millennia-long mission of being “savior” to the Jews.
There is one Jewish character, Tobias. Let’s talk about how he never could have existed. He is a seven-year-old German speaking Jew newly arrived at Dachau with his family 1944. Starting in 1941, German Jews were deported to ghettos in countries newly conquered by Germany. From these ghettos, they were sent to death camps. It is hard to imagine how Tobias’ family ended up in Dachau. How he had a tattoo, when those were only done at Auschwitz. How he, seven, and his sister, five, survived selection. How, later on, an elderly German was able to get children smuggled out of Dachau with only a piece of jewelry or two as a bribe. How civilians found out about the death march to Tegernsee a month in advance. None of this could have happened. Why did the author choose Garmisch as a setting? No doubt because of her personal connections and because of the proximity of Steinhöring, center of the Lebensborn program, and a concentration camp, any concentration camp. It is, after all, much easier to cobble together an apologia for the behavior of Germans in Nazi Germany if you ignore what really happened.
Taking a closer look at sloppiness of Tobias’ story: It is snowing when he hides in Elsie’s house. How did the soldiers not see his tracks? In an old wooden house, hidden in a crawlspace between the walls, how was he so quiet that he did not arouse any suspicion? After a month of near total confinement and already malnourished, how was he able to come out and help Elsie bake? How did he have the strength and mobility for that, after being cramped in one place for so long? And how did he, a seven-year-old who could have known nothing other than ghettos and concentration camps, know how to bake so adeptly? It’s ridiculous. How could Elsie, despite only being a teen, be so stupid as to send Tobias out to bring in wood? And what are the chances that the person who discovers their secret is a kindly elderly neighbor who is hiding Jews in her attic?
The chances are vanishingly small. Look at the statistics for Righteous among the Nations in Germany:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteo...
Yad Vashem resources on Righteous Among the Nations are extensive. The author clearly did not consult them.
https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/r...
The few mentions of Judaism are not only inaccurate but further antisemitic stereotypes. Tobias refuses to eat a bratwurst that Elsie offers her. She expresses annoyance at the ungrateful Jew: “… it still frustrated and outright annoyed her that even now, in the midst of bloodshed and death, their customs took priority over his life.” The author is clearly unfamiliar with the concept of pikuach hanefesh, the idea that saving a life takes precedence over any other observances. Second of all, if he refuses to eat non-kosher meat, he should also refuse to eat bread without washing his hands ritually first. It is hard to imagine a starving child, a child who has known only hardship and displacement all his life, would turn down food. But all this is just a set up for the inevitable Christian moralizing. “From what Elsie had experienced of God, she knew he was more forgiving than any religion and more loving than any laws. She wished she could convince Tobias of it.” The stubborn Jew, clinging to cruel and unmerciful laws, is always and forever the default image that Christians conjure when they think of Jews.
Another inaccuracy comes when an adult Tobias, already a grandfather, writes to Elsie. “I pray the Birkhat HaGomel for you, my guardian angel. The first true and trustworthy friend on my path to salvation.” Here, the theme of Christian salvation is again explicit. But note the inaccurate use of Birkat haGomel, which the average reader will accept as a sign of authenticity and a touching cultural detail. Birkat haGomel is said in minyan, preferably a Torah service, shortly after one survives a life-threatening ordeal. It is a prayer of gratitude not to or about another human, but to G-d. Clearly there were no knowledgeable Jewish readers or editors involved in the publication process.
Another inauthentic note, Tobias named his daughter after Elsie. It is much more likely that he would name his daughter after his murdered mother, sister, grandmother, etc.
The plot is a product of the author’s own deep-seated need to absolve German civilians of complicity in the Holocaust, and furthermore, to create sympathy and understanding for Nazis who murdered Jews. To the author, those who enabled, participated in, or stood idly by during the Holocaust are not deserving of judgment or condemnation. A constantly repeated refrain throughout the book is “it is easy for outsiders to look back and make judgments” and “They [Nazis] weren’t all monsters… some even good men.” “The truth is, everyone has a dark side.” “But doesn’t everyone kind of hold their own above the others?” The book is structured for the very purpose of relativizing Nazism as something every group has their own version of. Reba’s boyfriend in the US Border Patrol, and her father in Vietnam, are framed as explicit parallels to Elsie’s fiancé, a highly placed Nazi SS officer. To further this relativizing of the Nazis’ atrocities, the author portrays non-Jewish Germans as equally victimized by the Nazi regime as Jews. In fact, because of the decentering of Jewish experience, the non-Jewish Germans come across as the primary victims. After all, the only Jewish character in the book survives. In order to recast the Germans as victims, the author constantly portrays the hatreds of the Nazis as a top-down imposition rather than an organic part of German society. Antisemitism, we are lead to believe, was not an endemic and historically-rooted problem before the Nazis gained power. The author would have done well to consult the vast body of literature regarding antisemitism in German society.
A great deal of the narrative is designed to create sympathy and understanding for Elsie’s SS fiancé. We are meant to see him as a decent man gone astray because of the pressures of his job. He feels sympathy towards Jews and has to constantly repeat refrains from Mein Kampf to steel himself for action. “It was time to act the part, despite all reservations and all personal convictions.” He did not perpetrate atrocities out of hatred. He was a good soldier and a good citizen, and how can one fault a man for giving his life to serve his nation? He was no monster; his life was a “blurry mosaic of right and wrong.” To emphasize his essential goodness, the author decides to have him eaten up by his conscience. He develops significant psychological and physical symptoms, and constant drug use is the only thing keeping him going. Witnessing the atrocities that he himself is committing “shakes his soul.” Eventually he commits suicide.
Tellingly, one of the Book Club questions at the end of the book calls on readers to discuss whether or not they sympathize with the SS officer. “Have you ever participated in something you didn’t believe in?” The questions call on readers to put themselves in the shoes of a Nazi, after a whole book devoted to sentimental inanities along the lines of “everyone has a dark side,” and repeated appeals to the reader to reserve judgment. After all, “Only God has enough of the story to judge our souls.” Years later, Elsie prays for the soul of her Nazi fiancé. “She had to believe that [forgiveness] was possible, even for the dead.” In the present-day timeline, Reba’s US Border Patrol boyfriend leaves his job, symbolically fulfilling the Nazi officer’s arch of redemption. Readers should ask themselves why the author is so committed to trivializing the Holocaust by drawing a parallel between the actions of Nazis and anything regrettable the readers themselves may have done. Incidentally, another of the Book Club questions asks readers to discuss the admirable features of the Lebensborn program, described quaintly as “communal living.”
Some may wonder why historical distortions are a big deal, given that this is after all fiction. When an author chooses a subject matter of such gravity as the attempted annihilation of an entire people, the author owes the people they are writing about the respect of not distorting their historical experience, and certainly not doing so for the purpose of entertainment or monetary profit, or for the purpose of a redemptive narrative to alleviate their own guilt. The actual horrors inflicted on Jews are watered down beyond recognition by an unwillingness to confront historical reality and a need to reframe the Holocaust in the context of a “feel good” story. Jews, in this type of story, aren’t real people. They are rhetorical devices who exist on the margins as projections of the author’s own ignorance, fully decentered from the story of their own persecution and destruction. Their purpose is to absolve the author and readers wholeheartedly of any guilt, and highlight by contrast the heroism and sacrifices of the non-Jews to whom they own their salvation.
There are many more criticisms one could make of this book. For example, the book also engages in gratuitous unaddressed racism that is used as joke punchlines in the present-day timeline: “I don’t believe in all that Hindu stuff – reincarnation and washing your face in cow piss.” And homophobia: Elsie expresses relief that her adult daughter is not a lesbian. The daughter suggests that lesbians exist only on the internet. No surprise that the present-day protagonist chooses Gone with the Wind as a comfort watch. There are multiple historical inaccuracies throughout, for example Garmisch was not occupied by Russian soldiers in World War One. It would be too exhausting to point them all out.
The book ends with a number of recipes from Elsie’s German bakery, each with a heartwarming little introduction. That, combined with the feel-good “saccharine sentimentality” (a writing affectation criticized by and yet constantly used by the author) that pervades this book, makes this what can only be termed a Cozy Holocaust novel. The Jew survives to sing the praises of his savior, the Nazi officer gets posthumous redemption, and everyone learns the valuable lesson that we cannot judge those who commit atrocities. That an author would be inspired to write such a book, that publishers would publish such a book, and that readers would enjoy such a book, is a sad reflection on society in general.
January 7, 2017
Totally over rated. I don't usually like fiction about the Nazi experience because there are so many fantastically written. In fiction books that it seems artificial. These characters were mostly that and the whole plot and story lines were disjointed and oddly unfinished. I don't understand and why people loved it so much unless they knew little or nothing about the reality of those times.
January 30, 2022
Through letters and remembrances, this book moves effortlessly between late second WW Germany and modern (2007) El Paso Texas. At the centre of the story is Elsie Schmidt, a teenager during the war growing up in Garmisch, Germany in her parent’s bakery. It is interesting this perspective of the War amongst everyday Germans during the Nazi reign in their country; so many turning a blind eye to the rumours of the atrocities going on. In 2007, Elsie and her daughter Jane run a German bakery in El Paso where they captivate the interest of a journalist there who’s interviewing them for a “feel good” story on Christmas celebrations in Germany. Reba has her eyes opened by Elsie as to what life was like for her during those war years. In learning Elsie’s extraordinary story and through the support of both Elsie and Jane, Reba begins to heal from her own damages accumulated over the years after the death of her father. Teenage Elsie is coping with the separation from her beloved sister Hazel who is now enrolled in the German Lebensborn Program, a reprehensible and highly secretive Nazi program who’s goal was to increase the birth rate of Aryan children. She has to consider a proposal from a Nazi officer, help keep the bakery afloat as supplies start to wane as the war goes on and put all her romantic dreams of marriage for love behind her. Her life changes completely on Christmas Eve 1944 when she ends up taking a young Jewish boy in who’s escaped his Nazi guard. She stows him away in a secret closet in her bedroom and the two become close as she risks everything to protect this young boy. Meanwhile we begin to find out more about 2007 Reba’s tragic past; her father’s trauma and eventual suicide as a Vietnam war vet and the horrific things Reba inadvertently learned about his time there. The Baker’s Daughter does an effective job of drawing parallels between wartime Europe in the forties and present day; the horrors and long lasting impacts of war (WW II and Vietnam), Nazi policies and programs and the current US border control and immigration programs (Reba’s boyfriend is a border services agent) and the strength and resilience of women who have supported each other throughout. All this tied together with the warmth and comfort of love, friendship and delicious baking. An enjoyable read start to finish.
March 21, 2017
I read this for book club, and thankfully it moved along quickly and descriptions didn't slow it down. Then again, the descriptions of the baked goods just made me hungry all the time! (There are recipes in the back and I am interested in trying some of them out.)
The story hits too close to home, even though it was published five years ago. There are two different scenarios that remind me of current events. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to read any further because of this, but then I decided to keep going and find out what happens. I'm glad I did. It was well-written and compelling. I also wanted answers to what happened in the prologue.
I would have preferred to not focus on Josef and Riki's stories and instead have more chapters to fill in what happened between some very large time gaps. There was also some timing that didn't line up for me, such as when one of the characters was born and what their age was in the present time of the story. I would have liked to know Reba's age, as that felt somewhat vague. (I'm guessing she was in her twenties.)
Overall, it was an interesting take on a tragic event and I look forward to discussing it with my book club soon.
The story hits too close to home, even though it was published five years ago. There are two different scenarios that remind me of current events. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to read any further because of this, but then I decided to keep going and find out what happens. I'm glad I did. It was well-written and compelling. I also wanted answers to what happened in the prologue.
I would have preferred to not focus on Josef and Riki's stories and instead have more chapters to fill in what happened between some very large time gaps. There was also some timing that didn't line up for me, such as when one of the characters was born and what their age was in the present time of the story. I would have liked to know Reba's age, as that felt somewhat vague. (I'm guessing she was in her twenties.)
Overall, it was an interesting take on a tragic event and I look forward to discussing it with my book club soon.
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