The Lost Baker of Vienna

It is easy to think of a story as over when the last page is turned. The war is worn, the crisis averted, that’s all she wrote. However, it is often just as difficult to deal with the aftermath of a great drama than the actual drama itself. This is something people tend to forget, especially when it comes to the Holocaust. All was not well for the surviving Jews once the allied forces liberated the camps. In fact, there were now scores of homeless, paperless individuals with dire health needs stuck in war torn countries because nobody else would take them in. The antisemitism that allowed Jews to be shuttled off to death camps while their neighbors largely kept silent and/or appropriated their homes and possessions did not magically disappear with Hitler. In fact, in a post-war world where resources were tight, it could be even worse than before.

This is the world that Sharon Kurtzman’s The Lost Baker of Vienna asks you to remember. Told in dual timelines, the novel first starts with food journalist Zoe trying to learn more about her family background after the passing of her grandfather. Searching for any record of her great Aunt, and seeking to explain mysterious post cards and photographs she found in her grandfather’s items, she bets her career by attending a culinary conference in Vienna at which an elusive food industry CEO has promised to meet with her and share more about her family. The magazine Zoe works for is paying her way on this trip she cannot afford because they want the story, but the CEO is only willing to talk if she’ll sign an NDA.

As the story unfolds, we are quickly thrown back to Vienna of 1946, in which Zoe’s great Aunt Chana is struggling to find passage for herself, her mother, and her brother to America. While waiting for immigration papers that may never come, the family must find protection from both thieves, pimps and plain old fashioned hunger wherever they can find it. Even if that means Chana accepting the advances of suitors who work on the black market. It’s a tale full of the kind of thing most people assume was over once the war ended – antisemitism, starvation, exploitation.

I usually shy away from WWII novels. Partially due to generational trauma and partially because I actually shy away from all war related fiction. I just don’t find wars particularly riveting fiction. It’s a personal taste, likely influenced by a pacifist nature and a preference for fashion over firearms. I know such books tend to be hugely popular, have their own sections in bookstores, might be supporting half of trad publishing if not more etc. They just aren’t my thing. That being said, I did not struggle to read The Lost Baker of Vienna. It moved at a brisk pace, and while the aftermath of war was clearly essential to the plot, there was so much else happening to pull me through. It’s worth a read, even if you, like me, aren’t a big WWII buff.

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