THE BAKER’S SECRET by Stephen Kiernan

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

French resistance to the Nazis wasn’t necessarily blowing up bridges, train tracks or fuel depots, returning pilots to the Allies, or sighting targets. Protagonist Emma shows resistance can be embedded in life’s routines, which in her case, is baking baguettes. In the vividly painted world of a small Normandy village we see Emma’s web of resistance grow to enable her fellow villagers to survive. Emma brings us to know the emotional underpinnings of resistance and what it means to be brave, when an occupation is measured in years but to survivors undoubtedly feels like it lasts more than a lifetime. Mr. Kiernan draws a sharp contrast between violent war scenes of Nazi atrocities and later D-Day, and simple village life, that brought The Summer Before The War to mind.