From the Publisher
Praise for The Baker’s Secret: “Transcends even a critical moment in history to suggest the inescapable human condition of ignorance of the future, and the absolute necessity of hope, courage, and unselfish sacrifice.” — Sena Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and The Fountain of St. James Court
“A tale beautifully, wisely, and masterfully told.” — Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun
“This many-faceted, thought-provoking story prompts soul-searching about life, war, and death.” — Booklist
“Remarkably touching, insightful and timely… bridges several powerful stories of life and death that explore the cost of courage and the true meaning of heroism… Illuminating, uplifting and ultimately redemptive.” — RT Book Reviews (4 1/2 stars)
“In this moving saga, Stephen P. Kiernan tells the story of soldiers and survivors, heroes and healing. . . . I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel that so poignantly depicts the brevity of life, the significance of each moment, the impact we have on one another.” — Mary Morris, author of The Jazz Palace
Mary Morris
In this moving saga, Stephen P. Kiernan tells the story of soldiers and survivors, heroes and healing. . . . I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel that so poignantly depicts the brevity of life, the significance of each moment, the impact we have on one another.
Paula McLain
A tale beautifully, wisely, and masterfully told.”
Sena Naslund
Praise for The Baker’s Secret: “Transcends even a critical moment in history to suggest the inescapable human condition of ignorance of the future, and the absolute necessity of hope, courage, and unselfish sacrifice.
Booklist
This many-faceted, thought-provoking story prompts soul-searching about life, war, and death.
RT Book Reviews (4 1/2 stars)
Remarkably touching, insightful and timely… bridges several powerful stories of life and death that explore the cost of courage and the true meaning of heroism… Illuminating, uplifting and ultimately redemptive.
Booklist
This many-faceted, thought-provoking story prompts soul-searching about life, war, and death.
Good Housekeeping
If you want your beach read to deliver some goose bumps, snag Stephen P. Kiernan’s The Curiosity. In this romantic thriller, a man who’s been buried in Arctic ice for over a century is reanimated, with shocking results.
Chris Bohjalian
Praise for The Curiosity: “I absolutely loved The Curiosity. It’s as thought-provoking and powerful as Flowers for Algernon and the writing is breathtakingly beautiful. And that ending? Poignant, luminescent, and absolutely perfect.
Entertainment Weekly
[The Curiosity] poses provocative questions about life and humanity.
Library Journal
★ 04/01/2017
Emma, a 22-year-old baker, has lived her whole life in the small Normandy village of Vergers, where everyone knows everyone else's business. She dreams only of marrying her beloved Philippe. But it's right before D-Day, 1944, and her networking skills and resourcefulness cause her, in spite of herself, to evolve into a heroine who will help the village survive. Former journalist Kiernan (The Hummingbird; The Curiosity) uses his considerable reporting skills to depict daily life in the French town. The villagers fight the occupying German Army with small but nonetheless incredibly brave daily acts of defiance. Monkey Boy, Guillaume the veterinarian, Uncle Ezra, who is Emma's Jewish mentor, as well as Monsignor, the priest who both baptizes and buries each villager, and Michelle, who enters into a romance with a German soldier and pays the price—all will linger in readers' memories. VERDICT This moving and thought-provoking work of historical fiction will be popular with lovers of other recently popular World War II novels such as Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See and Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/16.]—Elizabeth Safford, Boxford Town Lib., MA
Kirkus Reviews
2017-03-07
While Europe awaits liberation from Hitler's troops, one small Normandy village is held together by the resourcefulness of a 22-year-old woman with a talent for baguettes.Through the hungry, despairing years of the Nazi occupation, hopes of an Allied invasion give most of the inhabitants of Vergers, a French northern coastal community, something to live for, but not baker Emmanuelle. "They will never come," she repeats, burdened by the deportations and deaths of those she loves. Yet, despite her pessimism, Emma is waging her own one-woman war effort, bartering and distributing eggs, dribbles of petrol, and secret extra loaves to keep the village alive. Kiernan's (The Hummingbird, 2015, etc.) portrait of the terrors and systematic cruelty of German rule is rooted in fact but softened by the conventions of the genre. There's light humor, like a pigpen too smelly for the Nazis to search, and then there's the cast of more-or-less predictable characters. The Germans, seemingly conscripted from central casting, are either cloddish or cunning ("The colonel…a bald man, who kept his monocle in place by maintaining a constant sneer"), while Emma and her community tend to follow stereotype: Resistance stalwarts, turncoats, beauties, and wise elders. When the D-Day landing does eventually begin, Emma, in special peril since her deceptions have been exposed by a dastardly Nazi captain, must finally accept that change has arrived. In fact she is brought to tears by witnessing the sacrifice of "whole cities of men" so that she, her family, friends, and neighbors can live freely, and here the novel does achieve emotional resonance before returning to more well-worn dramatic turns and heroics. Evoking a not exactly unfamiliar chapter of 20th-century history, Kiernan succeeds in engagement but not much originality.
