The Sweetness of Forgetting
Kristin Harmel
Language: English
Pages: 368
ISBN: 1451644299
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A baker in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, must travel to Paris to uncover a family secret for her dying grandmother—and what she learns may change everything. The Sweetness of Forgetting is the book that made Kristin Harmel an international bestseller.
At thirty-six, Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her for a twenty-two year old, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen.
Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie, who wowed the Cape with her fabulous pastries for more than fifty years, is drifting away into a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in Paris. And then, arming her with a scrawled list of names, she sends Hope to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.
Hope’s emotional journey takes her through the bakeries of Paris and three religious traditions, all guided by Mamie’s fairy tales and the sweet tastes of home. As Hope pieces together her family’s history, she finds horrific Holocaust stories mixed with powerful testimonies of her family’s will to survive in a world gone mad. And to reunite two lovers torn apart by terror, all she’ll need is a dash of courage, and the belief that God exists everywhere, even in cake...
Ellis Island to the right. I wonder whether that’s where Jacob and my grandmother first arrived in this country. Just beyond Ellis Island is Liberty Island, where I see the Statue of Liberty, holding her torch high. It gleams in the sunlight, and I think for a minute about the freedom it represents. What must it have been like to enter into this country for the first time, via Ellis Island, passing such a strong symbol of everything this nation stands for? And then, just like that, something
Acknowledgments This is the book I’ve been wanting to write for years, and seeing this come to fruition has taught me some important lessons about following my heart and surrounding myself with wonderful, decent people whom I truly trust and cherish. My agent, Holly Root, and my editor, Abby Zidle, are both incredibly kind, hardworking, wise, and talented, and I can’t even begin to sufficiently express how much I appreciate all their effort, insight, friendship, and encouragement. I think
Jacob?” Monsieur Haddam asks with a frown. “It seems impossible that she loved another so soon.” “No,” I say softly. “My grandfather’s name was Ted.” He bows his head. “So she married another.” He pauses. “I always assumed Rose perished,” he says. “So many did in those days. I always believed she would have made contact after the war, if she had lived. But perhaps she wanted only to forget this life.” I think of what Gavin said about some Holocaust survivors wanting to start over when they
Her life must have felt tremendously empty. Had loneliness driven her into the arms of my grandfather? How had she been able to lie beside him at night, knowing that she’d already had—and lost—the love of her life? “So how come you got a divorce then?” Annie asks. “If you loved Dad like that?” “Sometimes, things change,” I reply. “Not Mamie and Jacob,” Annie says confidently. “I bet they always loved each other. I bet they still love each other.” In that moment, I feel terrible sadness for my
comes along every day,” Alain says. “Think about how he helped her when we were in Paris and Rose was brought to the hospital. He was there for her. And he was there for you.” I nod again. “I know. He’s a good guy.” “He is more than that,” Alain says. “Tell me, why do you not believe in this?” I shrug and look down. “He’s seven years younger than I am, for one thing,” I mumble. Alain laughs. “Your grandmother married a Christian man, although she is a Jew. And you just came from the home of a