By Bread Alone [Hardcover]

Sarah-Kate Lynch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2004

Love, loss, and the redemptive power of breadmaking are the irresistible ingredients in this warm, witty novel by the author of "Blessed Are the Cheesemakers."

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the crust of a sourdough boule protects the tenderness within, so it is with artisanal baker Esme Stack, who privately nurses a grieving heart while wittily coping with crises involving her dour father-in-law, Henry; the specter of her beloved, recently deceased Granny Mac; and an evil goat. Esme, her husband, Pog, and their four-year-old, Rory, have left their glam London life and moved to the Suffolk countryside after a tragedy so terrible it is long unnamed. Bread provides much subject matter and metaphor, especially with the reappearance of Esme's first lover, a sexy French artisanal baker. Lynch lets the dough of her story rise slowly, allowing the dread to build even amid the gossipy fun. Nestling a tragedy inside a comedy is a brave feat, and New Zealander Lynch (Blessed Are the Cheesemakers) almost pulls it off. Alas, the plot resolution centers on improbable actions by Charlie Edmonds, Esme's gay male best friend, and Ridgely Watson, the son of Esme's female best friend, who exists offstage until he appears to commit a final, dramatic and deeply unwise act. Lynch then resolves the story in a crescendo of moralizing, weeping and redemption. Like one of the breads Esme bakes, the story stays in the oven a little too long—it's not perfect, but it's still good.
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From Booklist

This second novel is an aromatic ode to the carbohydrate and a poignant tale of loves and lives lost and regained. Esme learned to make her signature sourdough bread under the romantic tutelage of Louis while on holiday in France. Their tumultuous love affair ends in betrayal, and brokenhearted Esme retreats to England. Years later, Esme frantically flees London. She has been replaced at her glamorous editing job by a backstabbing employee and suffered an unexplained family tragedy. Living like country gentry in a peculiarly constructed farmhouse with dysfunctional farm animals, her father-in-law, and her own grandmother, Granny Mac, Esme hopes to bring back her family's absent joy. With the sage and saucy advice of her Scottish granny, Esme realizes she must revisit her painful past to overcome her pain-filled present. The story slides easily between Esme's budding first romance with Louis and her current gloomy situation. A tearjerker in every sense of the word, so readers will laugh and cry along with Esme as she rediscovers her bread and strength. Highly recommended. Kaite Mediatore
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (October 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446531294
• ISBN-13: 978-0446531290
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,476,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming, Special and Different, January 4, 2006

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By Bread Alone (Paperback)

New Zealand author Sarah-Kate Lynch has come up with a quirky, original, touching charmer of a book about an English wife and mother who is anything but ordinary.

Esme Stack makes sourdough bread every day of her life, and its texture, aroma and "ambience," if you will, measures out her days. But when the book opens, Esme cannot bring herself to bake her bread, something she has been doing for decades. Her husband Pog (Hugo) is worried sick; her irrascible and nasty father-in-law Henry is secretly worried, and her divinely unique 4-year-old son Rory is not right at all.

As the story unfolds in delightfully fey meetings between Esme and her deceased Grandmother (you have to read it to believe it) and in flashbacks to the past, it gradually becomes clear that Esme and Pog have had a great tragedy: one that is barking at the heels of Esme's sanity. But what? On the outside, Esme is a ferociously organized housewife, baker, artist, nurturer of sick and lame animals (the bits about the donkey are hilarious). We know she once had a career, but not why she left it. We know she is holding something terrible at bay, but not what it is.

The gradual breaking of Esme's shell of protection is heartbreaking in its intensity and almost joyous in its resurrection of her soul.

This is simply a fabulous book. I am looking forward to reading "Blessed Are the Cheesemakers," by the same author! What a find!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and heartwarming, December 5, 2004

By 

Karen E. Fauls-traynor "karenft" (Chittenango, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By Bread Alone (Hardcover)

Esme, a former London magazine editor and now stay-at-home mom, lives in the country with her husband, Pog, her son Rory, her very crabby father-in-law, Henry and the enigmatic Granny Mac, the grandmother who has been Esme's only family since her mother committed suicide when Esme was a teenager. They live in a very unusual house--a former water tower converted to a house in the style of a dovecote, five narrow floors topped by a larger living space. 79 stairs to climb from top to bottom! At first glance their lives appear idyllic. Esme begins each day baking her own sourdough bread and the family thrives on it. But in reality they are all dealing, in their own dysfunctional ways, with a tradedy that befell them two years earlier. Lynch has done a superb job of bringing the reader into this family's story and while the ending is very satisfactory, you won't want to leave the characters.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fully Satisfied by Bread Alone, October 23, 2005

By 

M. S. Spary (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By Bread Alone (Hardcover)

I have heard dozens of great comments about this book but had put off reading it because I am a bit of a book snob, and thought it sounded pretty lightweight. When I went to hospital last week, I thought it would be the perfect read - nothing too challenging. In fact, it WAS the perfect read - totally gripping, believable (well...nearly!), very, very funny, and a real tearjerker. I was fascinated by the house (and even more so when I read that it actually exists), felt real compassion for all the characters - even crusty old father in law.

I am trying to think of any criticisms to make about it, and failing. I read the other reviews, and am really surprised that one of the reviewers found it so poorly edited. The author has certainly been generous with the adjectives, but not in a way that detracts from the story at all.

Read it yourself - I am now reading Sarah Kate Lynch's "Eating with the Angels" and enjoying it just as much. Must go to hospital again soon - it's great for my reading!