Reba’s hand lifted off the page. This was more interesting than expected. She tried to keep a neutral tone. “Were you a Nazi?”
“I was German,” replied Elsie.
“So you supported the Nazis?”
“I was German,” Elsie repeated. “Being a Nazi is a political position, not an ethnicity. I am not a Nazi because I am German.”
(from The Baker’s Daughter, page 52)
The Baker’s Daughter is, hands-down, the best book I’ve read so far this year, and I am confident that it will be on my “best of” list for 2012. I have read numerous novels in recent months that shift back and forth between the present and World War II, and most times I prefer the storyline set during the war. While I felt the same way with The Baker’s Daughter at first, by the time I finished I felt that Sarah McCoy had expertly connected the past and the present.
The Baker’s Daughter focuses on two women from different eras, both of whom know hardship and heartache and are trying to find themselves. In 2007, Reba Adams is a reporter trying to forget her past. She left her mother and older sister behind in Virginia and headed to El Paso, wanting to escape the truth about her Vietnam vet father, his suicide, and its aftermath. She reinvents herself with strangers, and when the lies escape her lips, she almost believes them. She is engaged to a border patrol guard, Riki Chavez, but she doesn’t let him see her true self and wears his ring around her neck because she can’t seem to commit.
While writing a Christmas-themed story, she ends up at Elsie’s German Bakery looking for a quote about a traditional German Christmas, but the bakery’s owner, 79-year-old Elsie (Schmidt) Meriwether only remembers the difficult Christmases during World War II, when her family was separated and food was scarce. Reba asks about a picture of a younger Elsie with her mother, asks Elsie to tell her about that Christmas in Garmisch, Germany, in 1944, a night in which 16-year-old Elsie attends a Nazi Christmas Eve party with SS Lieutenant Colonel Josef Hub, who that night asks her to marry him. Elsie is overwhelmed by the entire evening; Josef’s sleazy friend, Major Kremer, hits on her, she tries champagne for the first time, she receives a marriage proposal from a man almost twice her age, and she is captivated by a young Jewish boy from the Dachau concentration camp who the Nazis get to sing for the occasion — the same Jewish boy who turns up on the doorstep of the Schmidt Bakery later that night.
I was instantly captivated by Elsie’s story, and McCoy does a brilliant job setting the scene. I felt like I was in the bakery, with the smells of the dough, the brick oven, and Elsie’s fear in the air. McCoy perfectly captures the frustrations of the Germans as the war nears the end; they are hungry, scared to say the wrong thing with the Gestapo always watching, and torn between their love for their country and their disillusionment with the politics of the Reich. This patriotism and confusion are exemplified by Elsie, as she accepts Josef’s proposal for the protection it offers not because she loves him, and especially by Elsie’s sister, Hazel, who is a resident of the Lebensborn program and has given birth to twins for the Fatherland, and one of the infants appears not to be a perfect Aryan. McCoy also gets into the heads of some of the minor characters as well, particularly Josef and Riki, juxtaposing one’s struggles with Nazi ideology with the other’s involvement in the border wars between the U.S. and Mexico as he questions immigration laws even while he enforces them.
I didn’t expect The Baker’s Daughter to be such a complex novel that covers so much ground, from mothers and daughters and relationships between sisters to the hardships of war and the battles we fight internally. McCoy deftly moves between the past and the present and mixes things up a bit with letters and e-mails between the characters, but never does the reader feel lost. Even the secondary characters are complicated and intriguing, which can be difficult to pull off. Normally I finish these types of novels believing that the story set in the present could have been removed without readers noticing, but The Baker’s Daughter is a perfectly crafted novel in which Elsie’s past plays into Reba’s present and both are important to the story. But if that’s not enough of a recommendation, let me tell you that several recipes from Elsie’s German Bakery are featured at the end of the book. The Black Forest Cake and Cinnamon Rolls sound delicious. I should have baked them first and ate while reading!
Thanks to TLC Book Tours for having me on the blog tour for The Baker’s Daughter. To follow the tour, click here.
Disclosure: I received a copy of The Baker’s Daughter from Crown for review. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.
© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
Yes, you’ll have to tell us if you bake any of the recipes and how they turned out. I’m glad you enjoyed this one. I’ll be reading it later on.
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I definitely want to bake the cinnamon rolls, but my thighs are screaming “don’t do it!”
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I’m determined to bake something and talk about it on the blog.
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Good idea, especially if you share some with me. 🙂
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I’m reading this right now and loving it!
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So glad to hear that!
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It is a very complex novel with lots to think about. Very real characters and vivid settings. I loved it.
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So glad you loved it too. I felt like I knew the characters and that I’d been there with them. That’s the mark of a great novel.
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COOL! OK, must read The Baker’s Daughter. MUST!
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Yes, you MUST! 😉
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Eeee — your review has me SO excited now!! I want to love this one and everything you’ve mentioned has me salivating. I can’t wait to start this one this week!!
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I know I loved it more than you did, but I’m so glad you were able to enjoy it.
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Thanks for this thoughtful review. I just clicked through to your blog from Twitter out of curiosity. I’ve seen this title mentioned, but had no idea what it was about, but now it sounds like a must-read for me. My husband’s grandmother is German. She and my husband’s father came here in the early 1950s after she married an American GI (she was in the American block after the war). She doesn’t say much about that time, but we know that her father died in bombings and her mother starved to death. Her brothers were killed in the war, and she had two aunts who disappeared. She tried to find them, but she never did–to this day she holds out hope that they escaped Germany. Only she and her sister survived, and they were separated. We know she carried a gun to protect herself; she was not married and we don’t know who my husband’s grandfather is, but we suspect it was not a happy story. After she came here, a Jewish woman taught her to speak English, and they became life-long friends. Today she lives in Germany again, and she’s one of the most resilient, happiest people I’ve ever met. With all of the (deserved) coverage the Holocaust gets, I do think we tend to forget that many, many ordinary Germans suffered. I’m happy to learn that Sarah McCoy wrote this book.
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My mother’s parents were German and they moved to the States in 1956 when my mother was three. They died when I was young, so I don’t know their whole story, but there was a lot of suffering that they endured during the war; they lost an infant son to starvation and in were some sort of camp. That’s mostly why I gravitate toward these kinds of books, to learn more about what my own family experienced during the war.
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I was curious anyhow, but the cinnamon recipe shifted idle curiosity into pressing curiosity. There is something about the idea of contrast between the extreme coziness of the bakery with the horrors of the time period…
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And there’s a lot to read about how the recipes continued during the war and how they were much different and less indulgent than during peacetime.
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Seeing this book everywhere and so many readers are loving it! Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
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I hope you get a chance to read it and love it as much as I did.
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I have heard great things about this book. I am glad to hear that even though the story is complex, the reader doesn’t get lost. I am hoping I can get this from the library.
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I hope you can get your hands on it, too. I think you’d enjoy it. It definitely gives you a lot to think about.
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I want to read this one and find out what happened
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I hope you do! I’d love to hear what you think.
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Ack! Why can’t I leave a comment? I’m having trouble. Anyway. My review of this book is coming up tomorrow, but I LOVED it. You and I have pretty much done it all when it comes to WWII novels, but this one was different enough to set it apart from everything else.
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No idea why you had trouble commenting. Sorry ’bout that! We have run the gamet with WWII novels, but there’s still something that keeps me coming back for more.
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I’m so excited about this book because I love Sarah McCoy – she is a Hokie after all. I’m thrilled that you loved it so much. I plan to buy a copy of it tomorrow – I hope my bookstore’s not sold out.
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I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. Serena had a chance to meet Sarah McCoy and I’m jealous…but at least she got my book signed for me!
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wow, best book of the year so far? It does sound like a book to get caught up in. Glad you enjoyed it so much.
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I hope there’s more books like this one in my reading future!
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My hopes for this one are getting higher and higher with each new review that I read of it!
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I hope it meets your expectations!
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Oh, what a great review, I will definitely have to read this! I have to admit that I didn’t care for the current day story in Sarah’s Key.
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I wasn’t wowed by Julia’s story in Sarah’s Key either. In this book, even though Elsie’s story was so much more interesting, I still was able to get caught up in Reba’s story and how they meshed was just great.
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Wow .. that is a strong recommendation!! I’m happy you found a book that pleases you so much.
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Thanks, Jenners!
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The premise alone pulled me in, but knowing how strongly you feel abut this book sealed it for me. I must read this! Great review, Anna!
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Thanks, Lisa! I can’t wait to hear what you think of it.
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Much like you, I feel like the two-era story of WWII and now is overdone these days, but if this book is THAT GOOD, then I’ll definitely look into it! I love how much of your love comes through in this review 🙂 (Rhymes!)
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Hee hee. I don’t mind the two-era stories even if they are a bit overdone, because then you stumble upon jewels like this one. (Hey I rhymed, too, and unintentionally!)
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Wow, this sounds amazing! I can not wait to read this now. Woohoo!
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I can’t wait for your thoughts!!
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I really want to read this one! I love historical fiction, especially multiple era reads. I’ll have to check this one out.
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Then this is your kind of book. Hope you love it as much as I did!
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I had to skim your review…I haven’t read my copy yet for my TLC post and I don’t want to know too much going into it!!
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Understandable. Glad you enjoyed this one as much as I did!
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this book sounds amazing! i’m glad to see that you enjoyed it so much and its always a good sign when you think the book is going to end up on your year end best of list and its only the second month! i’m definitely adding this one to my wishlist. thanks for the suggestion!
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My pleasure! Hope you get a chance to read it.
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I really, really, really want to read this one now!! I love books that explore the guilt versus the innocent when it comes to Germans before and during World War II.
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It definitely is a fascinating topic, especially given my family history. Hope you get a chance to read it.
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[…] on her next.Website | Blog | Facebook | TwitterSarah’s Tour StopsMonday, February 6th: Diary of an EccentricTuesday, February 7th: You’ve GOTTA Read This!Wednesday, February 8th: The Feminist […]
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Wow Anna – best of 2012 list?! Ok, you totally have my attention. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this one now.
Thanks for the fantastic review for the tour! I’m featuring your review on TLC’s Facebook page today.
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Thanks, Heather!
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Wow, this sounds like an amazing book! I hadn’t paid much attention to it before (there are so many books that have “somebody’s daughter” titles), but after reading your review I really want to read it!
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I hope you give it a chance!
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[…] ”The Baker’s Daughter is, hands-down, the best book I’ve read so far this year, and I am confident that it will be on my ‘best of’ list for 2012… a perfectly crafted novel…” –Anna Horner, Diary of an Eccentric […]
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I’m sorry I’m so behind visiting blogs especially yours.I saw on Sarah McCoy’s website this is one of your favorite books so far this year so I wanted to red your review. This is a fantastic review, Anna. I wanted to read this book before I read your review now I feel like I have to read it as soon as possible. You read many books about WWII so a book that’s your favorite is one that I think I should read! Elise sounds so interesting and I love how you describe the bakery but what really strikes me is when you say even the secondary characters are intriguing. That’s pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to reading this book for many reasons.
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Thanks, Amy! Please don’t worry about not commenting; I’m behind in commenting, too. Work and life in general have been crazy lately. I hope you love this one as much as I did!
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[…] in January 2012 and already has received a number of praising reviews and even one blogger, Anna of Diary of an Eccentric, says that the book will be on her best of 2012 list. With all of this praise, I’m looking […]
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[…] great for readers who don’t want lighter fare, then try I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits, The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy, The Golden Hour by Margaret Wurtele, or The Yellow House by Patricia […]
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[…] Nude by Ellis Avery 3. Catalyst by Paul Byers 4. Summer of My German Solider by Bette Greene 5. The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy 6. The Golden Hour by Margaret Wurtele 7. A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry 8. My […]
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[…] The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy […]
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[…] not the man she thought he was, and Sarah McCoy lets readers know what happened to Hazel from The Baker’s Daughter, who joined the Lebensborn […]
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[…] Why I wanted to read it: I’ve loved McCoy’s writing since The Baker’s Daughter. […]
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