Coralie Donnardieu is a talented pastry chef at the Hotel Lutetia in Paris. It is July 1940 and the city of Paris is a city in turmoil. The Germans are coming and people are panicking about what is about to happen. There are those who are fleeing the city and others who believe that they will still be okay. Coralie has nowhere to go, but when the hotel is taken over by the Abwehr (the German Intelligence Service), she knows that she doesn't want to work for them.
When she returns to the kitchen to pick up some of her equipment that had sentimental value, she finds herself coerced into cooking but it will only be for one night, until she realises that having access to the inner workings of the Abwehr might be useful for gaining information.
Soon Coralie is working in the hotel kitchens alongside the German chef, Reinhardt. On the first occasion they meet, Reindhardt is gobsmacked by the sight of real cream as that had not been available in Germany for years due to the restrictions that were in place after the end of WWI, which Coralie didn't realise. Reinhardt and Coralie are soon working together, sharing recipes, and more.
During the week, Coralie is building up her patisserie business. She was gifted this by her Madame Manteux, her Jewish friend, and this becomes part of her front. She does, however, know that her friendship with Reinhardt and the various other activities she is undertaking are a bit incongruous and it won't take very much for her to find herself either on the wrong side of the Germans or of the Resistance.
I was very conscious as I read this book that the way that that some of the characters were being written could almost have had the hashtag #NotallGermans which made me a little bit concern that there was a bit of whitewashing of history happening but by the time the book finished I was googling to find out if certain things were true....and they were!
This is a dual timeline novel where the first timeline is during the war. The second timeline is set in 1984 when Coralie's granddaughter, who chooses to be known as Raven, is shipped out to her in California for the summer while her parents try to sort out their marriage. Coralie is not at all close to her daughter, Suzette, and similarly Raven and Suzette clash regularly. It is a clever choice to choose the 80's as the second setting as it meant that Coralie was only in her 60's so still had plenty of life left in her.
I was surprised by how much I found myself thinking about Raven. Raven is very concerned about the threat of all out nuclear war. I was 13 in 1984, and I knew all about the Cold War, but I don't recall being anxious about the threat of nuclear war. Maybe it was more of a concern for kids in America. There were lots of times I found myself thinking about Sting's song Russians, about the hope that the Russians love their children too.
There were a lot of 80's pop culture references throughout the book. I did also have a bit of an "oh my goodness I am getting old" realisation. Whilst there are a lot of different definitions of historical fiction, if we use the one that says a book needs to be set more than 50 years in the past. We are not that far from the 80's being historical fiction! I am old enough to be considered historical fiction! lol.
As you would expect in a book with this title, there were plenty of foodie references, and I would in fact say that this was the strongest aspect of the story for me. There was so much delicious sounding food all the way through the book. Some of those are delicious French patisserie items, but Reinhardt also teaches Coralie some German dishes, including items like Kartoffelpuffer and onion gravy. One of the things you might need to overlook is the ease with which Coralie was able to obtain the necessary ingredients.
Like so many others, Coralie chose to not share her wartime experiences with her family and that also meant that she no longer cooked. One of the ways in which Coralie and Raven start to bond is over food as she once again starts baking. There is one particularly item that Coralie cooks that I am interested in finding out more about is a Breton cake called Kouign-amann, but there were others too!
I did end up getting over my intiial misgivings and enjoyed the book in the end. It is definitely not one to read when you are hungry as you will find yourself day dreaming about all sorts of delicious treats.
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews, with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story and with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Books on Tour for the review copy.Rating 4/5
Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands…
Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows. And discovering a tattered, leather-bound book with yellowed pages full of handwritten recipes and coded numbers, she is stunned.
Her grandmother has never baked for her. And she refuses to talk about Paris, or the past. Flipping through the book, a faded photograph of a laughing couple falls out. As Raven scans the writing on the back she can scarcely believe her eyes…
What really happened in that tiny French bakery all those years ago? And could this forgotten recipe book finally bring healing to a woman still haunted by wartime secrets? Or has Raven’s discovery shattered any chance of bonding with her grandmother, before her time runs out?
The Resistance Bakery is an unforgettable page-turner about forbidden love and family secrets in World War Two. Fans of The Letter, The Nightingale and Fiona Valpy will be totally hooked.
About the Author
Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, Breathe magazine, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, and Spirit & Destiny. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including the BBC, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Bath Festival, Ilkley Festival, London Book Fair and Sharjah Reading Festival.
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