The Baker of Lost Memories
A family’s fraught road back to each other is the focus of Shirley Russak Wachtel’s bittersweet historical novel The Baker of Lost Memories.
Josef and Anya run a small bakery in Lodz, Poland, with the help of their bubbly young daughter, Ruby. When the Nazi menace comes calling, their life is shattered. Josef and Anya emigrate to America for a fresh start.
The couple’s second daughter, Lena, grows up hearing her parents’ nicer memories of the Old Country. She longs to bake as expertly as her mother, dreaming of owning her own bakery someday. But her mother discourages her from baking; it remains a painful reminder of Ruby’s loss. In lieu of a sibling, Lena confides in her best friend, Pearl, whose shocking disappearance in 1961 haunts Lena into adulthood.
After Lena meets Luke in college, her dream of a bakery comes to fruition. Her once cathartic baking soon morphs into a daily grind, though, causing her to question her choices. Whose dream is she living out, and who can she confide in when the fantasy behind her marriage fades? When Pearl reappears, the ghosts of the past threaten to unveil family secrets.
The book’s multiple viewpoints are effective in fleshing people out. Anya and Josef are interesting and sympathetic, while Lena’s internal contradictions and passivity in her marriage are troubling. Food is also central to their stories, with a mouth-watering variety of Jewish dishes mentioned. As Lena realizes early on, Anya and Josef’s experiences in Poland suffuse their dinner table, where “eating was a business to be focused on with every cell of one’s brain. It was the business of staying alive.”
The Baker of Lost Memories is a compelling family drama, slow-boiling its way to redemption and second chances.
Reviewed by
Peggy Kurkowski
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