[go: up one dir, main page]
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Storyteller
    The Storyteller
    The Storyteller
    Ebook584 pages10 hours

    The Storyteller

    By Jodi Picoult

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    An astonishing novel about redemption and forgiveness from the “amazingly talented writer” (HuffPost) and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult.

    Some stories live forever...

    Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t.

    Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shame­ful secret and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths to which we will go in order to keep the past from dictating the future.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtria/Emily Bestler Books
    Release dateFeb 26, 2013
    ISBN9781439149706
    Author

    Jodi Picoult

    JODI PICOULT is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-six novels. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, the ALA’s Alex Award, the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Literary Merit, and the prestigious Sarah Josepha Hale Award in recognition of her distinguished body of written work. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband. They have three children. You can visit her website at wwww.jodipicoult.com  

    Read more from Jodi Picoult

    Related to The Storyteller

    Related ebooks

    Family Life For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      A Year in Reading: Jeff Chang

      Dec 11, 2017

      This past year, I spent a huge portion of my non-work-related waking hours immersed in the national output of nonfiction books. Instead of reading for writing projects, as was my annual routine for many years, I was reading to determine a winner. But

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Year of Reading Women

      Jan 6, 2021

      I don’t mind admitting that I could really go for a good fistfight just now. Or a race against time to foil a terrorist plot. Or a zombie apocalypse. A zombie apocalypse would definitely hit the spot. As some of you will recall, I gave up those and o

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Daring Escape From Slavery, And The Love Story Behind It

      Feb 13, 2023

      This year marks the 175th anniversary of the escape to freedom of William and Ellen Craft, a married couple enslaved in Georgia. Devoted to each other and determined to start a family only once free, the duo devised a jaw-dropping plan to disguise th

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      April Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Apr 5, 2021

      April brings new books from Haruki Murakami, Helen Oyeyemi, Elizabeth McCracken, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and a whole lot more. The post April Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Penguin Pride.

      Jun 28, 2019

      Penguin Pride.
      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The 20 Best Books of 2021

      Dec 22, 2021

      Editor’s Note: Find all of The Atlantic’s “Best of 2021” coverage here. Much of 2021 has been filled with a dull sense of déjà vu as the coronavirus pandemic has continued to shrink social worlds and batter morale. Many of the books our writers and

      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How Jackie O Helped Bring ‘Sally Hemings’ to Life

      Oct 4, 2022

      Barbara Chase-Riboud remembers Jacqueline Kennedy's role in publishing her groundbreaking debut novel. The post How Jackie O Helped Bring ‘Sally Hemings’ to Life appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Jun 2, 2021

      This June, we're tentatively removing our masks in public parks and curling up with new books from Kate Zambreno, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Lisa Taddeo, Kristen Arnett, Rivka Galchen, and Italo Calvino. The post June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipate

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      February Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Jan 30, 2023

      We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast biannual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here’s what we’re looking out for in February:

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Year in Reading: Maud Newton

      Dec 15, 2022

      Maud Newton reflects on 2022 through the books she read. The post A Year in Reading: Maud Newton appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring L’Engle, Thammavongsa, Kidd, and More

      Apr 21, 2020

      This week we've got our eye on new books from the likes of Madeleine L'Engle, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Sue Monk Kidd, Sebastian Barry, and Sopan Deb. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring L’Engle, Thammavongsa, Kidd, and More appeared first on T

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Bearing Witness

      Nov 6, 2023

      by Rachelle Unreich (Hachette, $34.99) by Anne Berest (Hachette, $34.99) A few weeks ago, I attended a discussion at Princeton University between distinguished American authors AM Homes and Joyce Carol Oates about the state of the novel in contempo

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Allan Gurganus

      Mar 9, 2021

      Allan Gurganus
      30 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Year in Reading: Edgar Gomez

      Dec 8, 2022

      Edgar Gomez reflects on 2022 through the books they read. The post A Year in Reading: Edgar Gomez appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      John Fram

      Jun 10, 2020

      John Fram
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Angels In America

      Feb 27, 2018

      BIG ANGEL—PATRIARCH of the De La Cruz clan, “El Jefe” emblazoned on his coffee mug, a man who once “could make the walls crack with his voice”—is dying of cancer. Relegated to a wheelchair, he realizes that “somebody was going to have to put his shoe

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2020 Book Preview

      Jul 15, 2020

      Wash your hands, wear your mask, keep a safe distance from others, and pick out a book. The post Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2020 Book Preview appeared first on The Millions.

      47 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Man Who Became Uncle Tom

      Sep 8, 2023

      The Man Who Became Uncle Tom
      22 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Storyteller

    4/5

    1,425 ratings134 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a spellbinding and thought-provoking book that combines historical and fictional elements perfectly. The author, Jodi Picoult, presents a controversial subject and crafts a story that makes readers question their own values. The book is gripping, intense, and hard to put down. While some readers found the ending rushed and disliked certain characters, the overall consensus is that this is a must-read novel. It provides a powerful and realistic portrayal of the Holocaust, with chapters on the grandmother's experience being particularly excellent.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Like her other stories, Jodi Picoult takes a headline from the news and examines all the moral, and human implications of it. In this story, a young woman struggles with issues of guilt, innocence, forgiveness, evil, and redemption in dealing with an ex-Nazi nonagenarian. Parts of the book are truly horrifying as Picoult details what life was like in the Polish ghettoes and the concentration camps. The novel includes an allegorical story within a story and the way Picoult weaves so many elements of the past and present, while throwing in a love story and plot twists,show that she's the master storyteller.
    • 5/5
      Always a fan of Jodi Picoult, I had no doubt about reading this novel. What I wasn't expecting was to be completely blown away and left speechless. Picoult has outdone herself and this book will be hard to beat as my favorite of hers. I have always loved historical fiction and especially those set during WWI and WWII. Even though it is hard to "love" a story about the horrors of the Holocaust, they have always hit me to the core. This one was no exception. Picoult has a new way of telling the stories of victims and survivors and giving us a different perspective to contemplate. Picoult expertly tells the stories of Sage, her grandmother Minka, and Josef taking us into their past and bringing us to their present. There are tragedies, horrors, bits of hope, and a fairy tale that keep you turning the pages. You will gasp, cry, and cringe as the story of Minka is told. Knowing she makes it through is what keeps you reading and reminds you to have hope in the midst of evil. The underlying theme of forgiveness spoke to me the most. I've personally learned that harboring anger and resentment only continues to feed the monster in your head and in your heart. Picoult's message of forgiveness rang true to me and reminded me of one of the best decisions I have made....to forgive and let it go.This was our book club choice for the month and I think all of us could have talked about this book for hours. Unfortunately, we had to go back to the reality of motherhood. But, each one of us commented on how much this book affected us emotionally. I don't think I have ever highlighted so many passages in one book. Picoult has an expertise in telling a story with life quotes and lessons that you want to remember forever. Without a doubt, pick up this novel at your local library or bookstore and set aside a day or two to read it. The story will linger with you for days and it may even change you.
    • 5/5
      This is a book that I would highly recommend! One of best and powerful books I have read this year. Going into the book, I did not know what the book was specifically about, but once I picked it up, it was hard to put back down.
    • 4/5
      Wow, that was uncomfortable in a good way. I always thought of Jodi Picoult as a twisted Nicholas Sparkks, but this was really so more than a sensationalized tragedy. I almost stopped on page 336 because it just got to be too much, which is also where I began to figure out the ending, so I had to keep reading to see if my suspicions were right. They were but I dont want to give away too much of the twist. I had to occasionally stop reading because I was getting too involved, that I cleaned during my "breaks" reflects how involved with the characters and how upset the story was making me. Not a book for relaxing but its very much worth reading.
    • 5/5
      I couldn't wait to finish this book but I didn't want it to end. There were so many moments in the book that made you think-I get it-but just as I thought I figured out the story line it wasn't exactly the right thought. It was much deeper story line. I learned a lot from this book-I hope I learned a little history and it made me think a little deeper each page I read.
    • 5/5
      The reader becomes immersed in the past and the present
    • 5/5
      Well, Jodi Picoult does it again. Writes a book I can't put down, with a theme that pulls you in: Sage, a shy woman who hides what she believes is a disfiguring scar, and bakes bread at night so she can sleep all day and not have to interact with people, becomes friends with an elderly gentleman in her grief group. I don't want to give too much away, but he asks a huge favor of her while also sharing a terrible secret about his past. As usual, Picoult has interesting plot turns and zings you with the ending. The story of Sage's scar I thought I saw coming, and I got it right. The mystery of Josef and his brother I also got right. But Sage's ultimate decision about whether or not to do Josef the favor he asks I got wrong. And as usual, I'm not sure if I "like" the ending. But what a great book!!
    • 5/5
      Is it possible to put a Holocaust story, a vampire story, a love story and a tragic accident in the same novel without it sounding cliched or offensive? Jodi Picoult proves that the answer to this is yes and builds a story about the choices that people make collecting the seemingly mismatching threads into a rich tapestry. The middle part of the novel is almost heartbreaking to read - the story of the Holocaust as seen by the eyes of a young girl that survives it. Even though you know it is a novel and that the narrator survives (because she is telling the story), it still is a very powerful piece of prose. And the fact that it is not a real survivor story does not make it less powerful.And around this middle part is the framing story - the old Nazi officer Josef that decides to ask forgiveness from a Jewish woman. In her introduction to the novel, Picoult points out that this idea is not her, she found it in Simon Wiesenthal's "The Sunflower" and that she built her novel around the idea. Except that the case in "The Storyteller" is a little different - Josef does not seek one of his victims but Sage - a 20-something baker which is Jewish by birth but claims not to be and that lives in the 21st century. Sage has her own story and secrets - while Josef had lived his life hidden because of what he had done and had built himself a new identity and won the respect of the whole town, Sage had her face marked from an accidents and hides behind her profession and the weird hours that bakers keep. Add to this Sage's grandmother Minka (who is the survivor that the middle part of the book belong to), a married man that Sage believes to be the best she deserves and a Nazi hunter who is ready to discount the whole story when he first hears it but then realizes that there is something in it, a retired Nun, interesting face showing in a bread (and I still do not see how that connected to the whole story...) and a few other secondary characters that allow the story to flow nicely. And the main thread in the whole novel is choices - the choices that Josef made as a boy and then as a young man, the choices Minka hd to make in order to survive, the choices that Sage made in her own life and for the story of Josef, the choice that Josef had made when deciding to confess to Sage; choices of death and life (in more than one way); choices of belonging and staying away; of betrayal and honesty. Even the last act of the novel was a choice.The turning point of the novel is hinted at very early in it and is fully shown long before Sage catches up on it - and that's one of the weak points of the novel. She should have seen it earlier - should have managed to process that information. But then should would not have made the same choice most likely - although I am not so sure that this would have been a bad thing. And where are the vampires? In a story, where they belong. Between the chapters of the novel in the same way in which they had been written between the hard days of Minka. A story that saves her life and that plays a significant role in her narrative... and as unfinished as the life of a person can be. And a lot of the choices in that fictional story mirror the choices in the lives of the characters - and repeating some of the parts during the novel narration itself serves to show how close is life to an unreal imaginary story... and how powerful a story can be.At one point, at the final part of the book Picoult defines history: "History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them." And that's one of the best definition I had heard. Because at the end of the day, history is the story of the choices made by people for people about people. And novels can relate these possible stories - because even if that one did not happen, millions of stories did happen in the ghettos and camps of WWII - and most of them cannot be told because noone survived to tell them. But "The Storyteller" is not just a Holocaust story even if it contains one; nor is it a vampire story - it just contains one. It is about memories, forgiveness, choices and hope.
    • 5/5
      I didn't see that coming.....the ending of course. It was a touching story but the ending felt like something was missing.
    • 3/5
      Sage Singer, an atheist of Jewish descent, works at a religious bakery. Having been scarred, she hides in the back and works during the night. One day she is introduced to an old man and they become friends. But here is where the story gets weird. Josef informs Sage that he was a Nazi SS officer and that wants her to kill him.The story is also that of Sage's grandmother and her survival during the Holocaust as well as a story that her grandmother wrote during her youth and incarceration at Auschwitz.At times, the stories were difficult to follow because they kept jumping back and forth.The ladies in my book club rave about Jodi Picoult so we selected this one for July. I had read My Sister's Keeper but was not impressed so I was hoping that this one would be better. The story was okay but I felt that the characters were a bit stereotypical and lacked originality.
    • 3/5
      An interesting story but the pieces just fall into place too neatly.
    • 4/5
      Sage is a baker in a small New Hampshire town. She bears the scars from a car accident which make her self-conscious about facing the world, so she largely keeps to herself. Nevertheless, she befriends Josef, an elderly German man who has lived in the town for many years. Josef is well known in the community, friendly and warm. However he has a secret, one which he chooses to share with Sage: he is a former SS officer. Sage reacts to this pretty much as anyone would: with disbelief followed by revulsion and anger. Her impulse is to report Josef, even after all these years, and make him face justice.However Sage also has a very personal reason for her reaction. She considers herself an atheist but she was raised as a Jew and she knows that her grandmother (Minka) was in a concentration camp during the War. Minka has never spoken about what she went through, preferring to leave it firmly in the past. She even keeps her identifying tattoo concealed at all times. Over the course of the book, Minka's story will be told. While I read her account of what she went through, there was a small part of me that felt like Picoult had cobbled together the "greatest hits" from The Pianist/Schindler's List/Night and other prominent accounts of the Holocaust. But as I reminded myself, we only know these stories because survivors have recounted them. Everything that Minka describes happened, if not to her, to many others. And it makes for harrowing reading. What's more, it's a very effective way of removing any doubt or sympathy that the reader may initially have had for kindly old Josef.This is a compulsively readable book. To me, Minka's voice was so brave and real that the book was slightly diminished after moving on from her story, but it keeps some final twists for the end.
    • 3/5
      Interesting story of an elderly SS officer and the young Jewish woman he asks to help him die. As Sage learns her Grandmothers history she must come to terms with mercy, forgiveness toward her loved ones and her enemies.
    • 4/5
      Although I am not usually a fan of Jodi Picoult, I found this book to be well worth my time. The author tackles the problem of forgiveness - dealing with a very emotional topic -- the Holocaust. Sage Singer is a loner - she is a baker who works at night and has few friends. She attends a group where she is trying to learn to forgive herself for an accident she was involved in and where she meets a man who befriends her - and asks her to do him the favor of forgiving him for horrible things he did as an SS officer during WWII. Knowing her grandmother is a concentration camp survivor, she goes to her, and (for the first time) hears her story. The point of view of the story does switch quite often - but does so in such a way as to not be confusing. Ms. Picoult has tackled a difficult topic, resulting in a very well-written, thought provoking book.
    • 5/5
      A fine work by versatile author Jodi Picoult. This book tells several different stories, although the main storyteller is a Holocaust survivor, Minka, who both wrote a story that she told to an SS man and that is inserted throughout this book and told her own survivor story to her granddaughter after many, many years of silence. There is also the story of her granddaughter Sage Singer, a survivor of a car accident that claimed her mother's life but left a scar on her face. And there is the story of Josef Weber, a nonagenarian who Sage meets in a grief survivors group. The book is a riveting read although beware that the author paints an unvarnished picture of Minka's imprisonment at Auschwitz. Not to be missed.
    • 4/5
      I have often been of two minds about Picoult: she is an amazing storyteller whose formula is obvious but constantly renewed in a fresh an interesting way; I would even say that it has become her signature. Her conclusions, however, tended to be cowardly - a slight of hand to get her out of the complicated moral situation she had adroitly described.In this novel, she accomplishes both: a breath-taking story in which she is able to expose the horrors of the war and the points of view of the various characters while coming up with a brilliant and heart-wrenching conclusion. Even though I had guessed the ending, it came as a double edged sword: bringing peace and justice on the one hand, shock and vengeance on the other. In my view, one of Picoult's best.
    • 4/5
      This seems something of a departure for Picoult - focusing as it does on the horrors of war and how terrible experiences affect the families of those who come after. Sage Singer is a very strong character and beautifully placed as a vulnerable baker within her community. I enjoyed her story very much and would have preferred to have spent more time with her. However the bulk of the central sections focus on Sage's grandmother's experiences of war and her time in Auschwitz and how she survived. It's both horrific and absolutely perfectly written.So in some ways it was a shock to be delivered back to Sage's story at the end - though it also makes sense as Sage is searching for clues about her grandmother's past, and for good reason. There is however a decision Sage makes at the very end which I felt was totally out of character for the woman I'd come to know - and which left me feeling very dissatisfied indeed. Without spoiling the plot of a book I can otherwise recommend, I'd say it would have been far more powerful and emotionally accurate if Sage's decision had actually been the opposite one, and this would also have more hopeful in terms of her developing relationship with the Nazi hunter. Still, it's a powerful read nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It's not very often you read about the holocaust through a Nazis eyes. It was a page turner as I wnsted to know what Sage would do with the old mans confession and his request to her to help him die
    • 4/5
      Jodi Picoult is a master at creating memorable characters full of depth who learn to embrace and live successfully with their own flaws. Sage Singer is no exception. Through an unlikely friendship forged in a grief therapy meeting, Sage discovers how to reconcile her own past. She discovers that everyone has secrets and learns that "forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It is something you do for yourself". With age and experience comes wisdom.
    • 4/5
      I have liked a number of Jodi Piccoult books but was getting tired of her recurring style. This one was a nice change. The details of life in the Polish jewish ghetto and in Auschwitz are heart wrenching. These are told by Sage's grandmother (Minka) who is a survivor of the Holocaust and a really amazing character. Weaved into this is an old style fairy tale she was writing during all this. It is a nice allegory. Also interesting is the story of Josef Weber who was Reiner Hartmann and his brother Franz, good and evil in a Nazi world,and survivor guilt. Nice twist to the ending.
    • 4/5
      Written with the usual multiple voices (and twist) employed by Jodi Picoult. Thoroughly enjoyable. Harrowing passages but also lots of humour.
    • 4/5
      Once you get to the ninth or tenth Picoult book it's easy to lose your passion for reading them. When I read Lone Wolf last year and struggled to make it to the halfway point, I thought this would be the end of Jodi and I's relationship. The Storyteller proved me wrong. I was wildly impressed with this novel. Though a potentially overdone theme, she handled it with beauty and never let cliches take over her great storytelling.

      I used to volunteer at a Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, where I would transcribe interviews with Holocaust Survivors discussing their experiences. Needless to say their stories were poignant, shocking, and powerful. Jodi's narrative in Part II holds this same flavor and intensity of experience. It is true to history and I respect what she has done in this book.

      And--though I should have known by now--I was pleasantly shocked at the ending!!
    • 4/5
      Another story of the Holocost but the prose was difficult to read at times. The brutality of the Naxis was not sugar coated and descriptions were quite graphic. When I read about all the suffering these poor Jewish people, I can't help but admire their incredible will to live. I did not expect the ending but in retrospect, it made the most sense
    • 5/5
      Brilliant.

      Jody Picoult is one of those authors that just writes fantastic novels on the human condition. The Storyteller concentrates on the theme of forgiveness and focuses on a holocaust survivor and her family, in particular her granddaughter Sage. Josef Weber in a ninety odd ex-SS member who approaches Sage (because of her Jewish heritage) so help assist him with suicide because he is so ashamed of the things he has done.

      The novel is beautifully written, I found Sage's grandmothers story so compelling and so interesting I just couldn't stop reading it. I also found it intriguing to read about the other side of the story told in the point of view of an SS member.

      It would not be a Jody Picoult novel without one of her signature plot twists and I honestly didn't see that one coming.

      Loved it.
    • 4/5
      One of my granddaughters is a big Jodi Picoult fan. I had bought this to give her but found out she already had a copy. She told me it was the first book she had read of Picoult's and I should read it. So I did.

      I had to take my time with it. Some of the subject matter is deep and not always easy reading. I don't mean technical or philosophical but more like graphic, to me.

      Sage Singer feels guilty for the death of her mother in a car accident when she was driving. She bears facial scars that make her self-conscious. She works night as a baker to avoid having to deal with people. She is still going to a bereavement counseling group after three years.

      At the group she meets Josef and they develop a friendship. He is in his 90s and is there because he lost his wife. They have that in common. But Josef has another reason to be there and that comes out later when he asks Sage to do something for him. Something that is not so simple as making a cup of tea or a nice loaf of bread.

      This story is written from a number of viewpoints; Sage, Josef, Sage's grandmother Minka, and Leo. They all have connecting threads that spin around World War II and the holocaust. The sections telling of life as a Polish Jew in the camps are strong. The revealing of the connections comes about slowly but not dragging.

      Picoult's style moves you along but allows you to go a your own pace. Parts you want to read quickly and parts you take your time. Over all a goodread.
    • 3/5
      EntertainingI think I'm in the minority with this read since it seems that everyone loved it but me. I can only say I liked the novel but didn't love it. I didn't care for Sage. She was empty and that made it very difficult for me to feel anything for her. The grandmothers story was harrowing and the highlight of the novel. Even though it was just an ok read, there were parts that were gripping.
    • 5/5
      What a good book! I didn't expect the ending, though. I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books and think it's her best, yet! Wow, it's going to stay with me for awhile as I process and reflect on it. Highly recommend.
    • 3/5
      A somewhat affecting Holocaust story, well written, but too much in the Picoult formula to be memorable.
    • 4/5
      This is my second Jodi Picoult novel, and my favorite so far. My book club read this one, and I don't know what I expected, but I drawn into the story completely and found the writing to be very nice.

      Sage Singer, at first, was a bit over-the-top for me, but as her story unfolded throughout the novel, so did my understanding of and compassion for her. This is a young lady with serious issues on several fronts, and Picoult handled the complexity of the story beautifully. Monster or Human? Forgive or not? Questions that all of us face at one time or another, in varying degrees, that enables the reader to complete submerge into the story.

      I loved the common thread of baking bread throughout the novel. The descriptions were so lovingly painted that I could see, smell and taste the dough. Bread is vital in so many ways to the story and I completely fell in love with the art of breadmaking.

      Excellent writing, excellent story and highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This is a very powerful book. It grabs you from the very first sentence and doesn't let go until the last word.

      This is the first book I have read where I was compelled to keep reading. It wasn't that I was enthralled by the characters or anxious to find out what happened in the plot. I knew what was going to happen, but I had to keep reading anyway. I can't think of another book I have read that has affected me in this way.

      Frankly, any other description or opinion about the story would be a waste of your time. I will only say that if you are squeamish, you may want think before you start. Because once you start this book, I don't know how you could stop.

    Book preview

    The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult

    PART I

    It is impossible to believe anything in a world that has ceased to regard man as man, that repeatedly proves that one is no longer a man.

    —Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower

    SAGE

    On the second Thursday of the month, Mrs. Dombrowski brings her dead husband to our therapy group.

    It’s just past 3:00 p.m., and most of us are still filling our paper cups with bad coffee. I’ve brought a plate of baked goods—last week, Stuart told me that the reason he keeps coming to Helping Hands isn’t the grief counseling but my butterscotch pecan muffins—and just as I am setting them down, Mrs. Dombrowski shyly nods toward the urn she is holding. This, she tells me, is Herb. Herbie, meet Sage. She’s the one I told you about, the baker.

    I stand frozen, ducking my head so that my hair covers the left side of my face, like I usually do. I’m sure there’s a protocol for meeting a spouse who’s been cremated, but I’m pretty much at a loss. Am I supposed to say hello? Shake his handle?

    Wow, I finally say, because although there are few rules to this group, the ones we have are steadfast: be a good listener, don’t judge, and don’t put boundaries on someone else’s grief. I know this better than anyone. After all, I’ve been coming for nearly three years now.

    What did you bring? Mrs. Dombrowksi asks, and I realize why she’s toting her husband’s urn. At our last meeting, our facilitator—Marge—had suggested that we share a memory of whatever it was we had lost. I see that Shayla is clutching a pair of knit pink booties so tightly her knuckles are white. Ethel is holding a television remote control. Stuart has—again—brought in the bronze death mask of his first wife’s face. It has made an appearance a few times at our group, and it was the creepiest thing I’d ever seen—until now, when Mrs. Dombrowski has brought along Herb.

    Before I have to stammer my answer, Marge calls our little group to order. We each pull a folding chair into the circle, close enough to pat someone on the shoulder or reach out a hand in support. In the center sits the box of tissues Marge brings to every session, just in case.

    Often Marge starts out with a global question—Where were you when 9/11 happened? It gets people talking about a communal tragedy, and that sometimes makes it easier to talk about a personal one. Even so, there are always people who don’t speak. Sometimes months go by before I even know what a new participant’s voice sounds like.

    Today, though, Marge asks right away about the mementos we’ve brought. Ethel raises her hand. This was Bernard’s, she says, rubbing the television remote with her thumb. I didn’t want it to be—God knows I tried to take it away from him a thousand times. I don’t even have the TV this works with, anymore. But I can’t seem to throw it out.

    Ethel’s husband is still alive, but he has Alzheimer’s and has no idea who she is anymore. There are all sorts of losses people suffer—from the small to the large. You can lose your keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your head, you can lose your heart, you can lose your mind. You can relinquish your home to move into assisted living, or have a child move overseas, or see a spouse vanish into dementia. Loss is more than just death, and grief is the gray shape-shifter of emotion.

    My husband hogs the remote, Shayla says. He says it’s because women control everything else.

    Actually, it’s instinct, Stuart says. The part of the brain that’s territorial is bigger in men than it is in women. I heard it on John Tesh.

    So that makes it an inviolable truth? Jocelyn rolls her eyes. Like me, she is in her twenties. Unlike me, she has no patience for anyone over the age of forty.

    Thanks for sharing your memento, Marge says, quickly interceding. Sage, what did you bring today?

    I feel my cheeks burn as all eyes turn to me. Even though I know everyone in the group, even though we have formed a circle of trust, it is still painful for me to open myself up to their scrutiny. The skin of my scar, a starfish puckered across my left eyelid and cheek, grows even tighter than usual.

    I shake my long bangs over my eye and from beneath my tank top, pull out the chain I wear with my mother’s wedding ring.

    Of course, I know why—three years after my mom’s death—it still feels like a sword has been run through my ribs every time I think of her. It’s the same reason I am the only person from my original grief group still here. While most people come for therapy, I came for punishment.

    Jocelyn raises her hand. I have a real problem with that.

    I blush even deeper, assuming she’s talking about me, but then I realize that she’s staring at the urn in Mrs. Dombrowski’s lap.

    It’s disgusting! Jocelyn says. We weren’t supposed to bring something dead. We were supposed to bring a memory.

    "He’s not a something, he’s a someone," Mrs. Dombrowski says.

    I don’t want to be cremated, Stuart muses. I have nightmares about dying in a fire.

    "News flash: you’re already dead when you’re put into the fire," Jocelyn says, and Mrs. Dombrowski bursts into tears.

    I reach for the box of tissues, and pass it toward her. While Marge reminds Jocelyn about the rules of this group, kindly but firmly, I head for the bathroom down the hall.

    I grew up thinking of loss as a positive outcome. My mother used to say it was the reason she met the love of her life. She’d left her purse at a restaurant and a sous-chef found it and tracked her down. When he called her, she wasn’t home and her roommate took the message. A woman answered when my mom called back, and put my father on the phone. When they met so that he could give my mother back her purse, she realized he was everything she’d ever wanted… but she also knew, from her initial phone call, that he lived with a woman.

    Who just happened to be his sister.

    My dad died of a heart attack when I was nineteen, and the only way I can even make sense of losing my mother three years later is by telling myself now she’s with him again.

    In the bathroom, I pull my hair back from my face.

    The scar is silver now, ruched, rippling my cheek and my brow like the neck of a silk purse. Except for the fact that my eyelid droops, skin pulled too tight, you might not realize at first glance that there’s something wrong with me—at least that’s what my friend Mary says. But people notice. They’re just too polite to say something, unless they are under the age of four and still brutally honest, pointing and asking their moms what’s wrong with that lady’s face.

    Even though the injury has faded, I still see it the way it was right after the accident: raw and red, a jagged lightning bolt splitting the symmetry of my face. In this, I suppose I’m like a girl with an eating disorder, who weighs ninety-eight pounds but sees a fat person staring back at her from the mirror. It isn’t even a scar to me, really. It’s a map of where my life went wrong.

    As I leave the bathroom, I nearly mow down an old man. I am tall enough to see the pink of his scalp through the hurricane whorl of his white hair. I am late again, he says, his English accented. I was lost.

    We all are, I suppose. It’s why we come here: to stay tethered to what’s missing.

    This man is a new member of the grief group; he’s only been coming for two weeks. He has yet to say a single word during a session. Yet the first time I saw him, I recognized him; I just couldn’t remember why.

    Now, I do. The bakery. He comes in often with his dog, a little dachshund, and he orders a fresh roll with butter and a black coffee. He spends hours writing in a little black notebook, while his dog sleeps at his feet.

    As we enter the room, Jocelyn is sharing her memento: something that looks like a mangled, twisted femur. This was Lola’s, she says, gently turning the rawhide bone over in her hands. I found it under the couch after we put her down.

    Why are you even here? Stuart says. It was just a damn dog!

    Jocelyn narrows her eyes. "At least I didn’t bronze her."

    They start arguing as the old man and I get settled in the circle. Marge uses this as a distraction. Mr. Weber, she says, welcome. Jocelyn was just telling us how much her pet meant to her. Have you ever had a pet you loved?

    I think of the little dog he brings to the bakery. He shares the roll with her, fifty-fifty.

    But the man is silent. He bows his head, as if he is being pressed down in his seat. I recognize that stance, that wish to disappear.

    You can love a pet more than you love some people, I say suddenly, surprising even myself. Everyone turns, because unlike the others, I hardly ever draw attention to myself by volunteering information. It doesn’t matter what it is that leaves a hole inside you. It just matters that it’s there.

    The old man slowly glances up. I can feel the heat of his gaze through the curtain of my hair.

    Mr. Weber, Marge says, noticing. Maybe you brought a memento to share with us today…?

    He shakes his head, his blue eyes flat and without expression.

    Marge lets his silence stand; an offering on a pedestal. I know this is because some people come here to talk, while others come to just listen. But the lack of sound pounds like a heartbeat. It’s deafening.

    That’s the paradox of loss: How can something that’s gone weigh us down so much?

    At the end of the hour, Marge thanks us for participating and we fold up the chairs and recycle our paper plates and napkins. I pack up the remaining muffins and give them to Stuart. Bringing them back to the bakery would be like carting a bucket of water to Niagara Falls. Then I walk outside to head back to work.

    If you’ve lived in New Hampshire your whole life, like I have, you can smell the change in the weather. It’s oppressively hot, but there’s a thunderstorm written across the sky in invisible ink.

    Excuse me.

    I turn at the sound of Mr. Weber’s voice. He stands with his back to the Episcopal church where we hold our meetings. Although it’s at least eighty-five degrees out, he is wearing a long-sleeved shirt that is buttoned to the throat, with a narrow tie.

    That was a nice thing you did, sticking up for that girl.

    The way he pronounces the word thing, it sounds like think.

    I look away. Thanks.

    You are Sage?

    Well, isn’t that the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question? Yes, it’s my name, but the double entendre—that I’m full of wisdom—has never really applied. There have been too many moments in my life when I’ve nearly gone off the rails, more overwhelmed by emotion than tempered by reason.

    Yes, I say.

    The awkward silence grows between us like yeasted dough. This group. You have been coming a long time.

    I don’t know whether I should be defensive. Yes.

    So you find it helpful?

    If it were helpful, I wouldn’t still be coming. They’re all nice people, really. They each just sometimes think their grief is bigger than anyone else’s.

    You don’t say much, Mr. Weber muses. "But when you do… you are a poet."

    I shake my head. I’m a baker.

    Can a person not be two things at once? he asks, and slowly, he walks away.

    I run into the bakery, breathless and flushed, to find my boss hanging from the ceiling. Sorry I’m late, I say. The shrine is packed and some moron in an Escalade took my spot.

    Mary’s rigged up a Michelangelo-style dolly so that she can lie on her back and paint the ceiling of the bakery. That moron would be the bishop, she replies. He stopped in on his way up the hill. Said your olive loaf is heavenly, which is pretty high praise, coming from him.

    In her previous life, Mary DeAngelis was Sister Mary Robert. She had a green thumb and was well known for maintaining the gardens in her Maryland cloister. One Easter, when she heard the priest say He is risen, she found herself standing up from the pew and walking out the cathedral door. She left the order, dyed her hair pink, and hiked the Appalachian Trail. It was somewhere on the Presidential Range that Jesus appeared to her in a vision, and told her there were many souls to feed.

    Six months later, Mary opened Our Daily Bread at the foothills of the Our Lady of Mercy Shrine in Westerbrook, New Hampshire. The shrine covers sixteen acres with a meditation grotto, a peace angel, Stations of the Cross, and holy stairs. There is also a store filled with crosses, crucifixes, books on Catholicism and theology, Christian music CDs, saints’ medals, and Fontanini crèche sets. But visitors usually come to see the 750-foot rosary made of New Hampshire granite boulders, linked together with chains.

    It was a fair-weather shrine; business dropped off dramatically during New England winters. Which was Mary’s selling point: What could be more secular than freshly baked bread? Why not boost the revenue of the shrine by adding a bakery that would attract believers and nonbelievers alike?

    The only catch was that she had no idea how to bake.

    That’s where I come in.

    I started baking when I was nineteen years old and my father died unexpectedly. I was at college, and went home for the funeral, only to return and find nothing the same. I stared at the words in textbooks as if they had been written in a language I could not read. I couldn’t get myself out of bed to go to classes. I missed one exam, then another. I stopped turning in papers. Then one night I woke up in my dorm room and smelled flour—so much flour I felt as if I’d been rolling in it. I took a shower but couldn’t get rid of the smell. It reminded me of Sunday mornings as a kid, when I would awaken to the scent of fresh bagels and bialys, crafted by my father.

    He’d always tried to teach my sisters and me, but mostly we were too busy with school and field hockey and boys to listen. Or so I thought, until I started to sneak into the residential college dining hall kitchen and bake bread every night.

    I left the loaves like abandoned babies on the thresholds of the offices of professors I admired, of the dorm rooms of boys with smiles so beautiful that they stunned me into awkward silence. I left a finial row of sourdough rolls on a lectern podium and slipped a boule into the oversize purse of the cafeteria lady who pressed plates of pancakes and bacon at me, telling me I was too skinny. On the day my academic adviser told me that I was failing three of my four classes, I had nothing to say in my defense, but I gave her a honey baguette seeded with anise, the bitter and the sweet.

    My mother arrived unexpectedly one day. She took up residence in my dorm room and micromanaged my life, from making sure I was fed to walking me to class and quizzing me on my homework readings. If I don’t get to give up, she told me, then neither do you.

    I wound up being on the five-year plan, but I did graduate. My mother stood up and whistled through her teeth when I crossed the stage to get my diploma. And then everything went to hell.

    I’ve thought a lot about it: how you can ricochet from a moment where you are on top of the world to one where you are crawling at rock bottom. I’ve thought about all the things I could have done differently, and if it would have led to another outcome. But thinking doesn’t change anything, does it? And so afterward, with my eye still bloodshot and the Frankenstein monster stitches curving around my temple and cheek like the seam of a baseball, I gave my mother the same advice she had given me. If I don’t get to give up, then neither do you.

    She didn’t, at first. It took almost six months, one bodily system shutting down after another. I sat by her side in the hospital every day, and at night went home to rest. Except, I didn’t. Instead, I started once again to bake—my go-to therapy. I brought artisan loaves to her doctors. I made pretzels for the nurses. For my mother, I baked her favorite—cinnamon rolls, thick with icing. I made them daily, but she never managed a bite.

    It was Marge, the facilitator of the grief group, who suggested I get a job to help me forge some kind of routine. Fake it until you make it, she said. But I couldn’t stand the thought of working in broad daylight, where everyone would be staring at my face. I had been shy before; now I was reclusive.

    Mary says it’s divine intervention that she ran into me. (She calls herself a recovering nun, but in reality, she gave up her habit, not her faith.) Me, I don’t believe in God; I think it was pure luck that the first classifieds section I read after Marge made her suggestion included an ad for a master baker—one who would work nights, alone, and leave when customers began to trickle into the store. At the interview Mary didn’t comment on the fact that I had no experience, no significant summer jobs, no references. But most important, she took one look at my scar and said, I’m guessing when you want to tell me about that, you will. And that was that. Later, as I got to know her, I’d realize that when she gardens, she never sees the seed. She is already picturing the plant it will become. I imagine she thought the same, meeting me.

    The only saving grace about working at Our Daily Bread (no pun intended) was that my mother was not alive to see it. She and my father had both been Jewish. My sisters, Pepper and Saffron, were both bat mitzvahed. Although we sold bagels and challah as well as hot cross buns; although the coffee bar attached to the bakery was called HeBrews—I knew my mother would have said: All the bakeries in the world, what made you decide to work for a shiksa?

    But my mother also would have been the first to tell me that good people are good people; religion has nothing to do with it. I think my mom knows, wherever she is now, how many times Mary found me in the kitchen in tears, and delayed the opening of the bakery until she helped me pull myself together. I think she knows that on the anniversary of my mother’s death, Mary donates all the money raised at the bakery to Hadassah. And that Mary is the only person I don’t actively try to hide my scar from. She isn’t just my employer but also my best friend, and I like to believe that would matter more to my mother than where Mary chose to worship.

    A splat of purple paint drops on the floor beside my foot, making me look up. Mary’s painting another one of her visions. She has them with staggering regularity—at least three a year—and they usually lead to some change in the composition of our shop or our menu. The coffee bar was one of Mary’s visions. So was the greenhouse window, with the rows of delicate orchids, their flowers draped like a string of pearls over the rich green foliage. One winter she introduced a knitting circle at Our Daily Bread; another year, it was a yoga class. Hunger, she often tells me, has nothing to do with the belly and everything to do with the mind. What Mary really runs isn’t a bakery, but a community.

    Some of Mary’s aphorisms are painted on the walls: Seek and ye shall find. All who wander are not lost. It’s not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years. I sometimes wonder if Mary really dreams up these platitudes or if she just memorizes the catchy phrases on Life Is Good T-shirts. I guess it doesn’t much matter, though, since our customers seem to enjoy reading them.

    Today, Mary is painting her latest mantra. All you knead is love, I read.

    What do you think? she asks.

    That Yoko Ono is going to sue you for copyright infringement, I reply.

    Rocco, our barista, is wiping down the counter. Lennon was brilliant, he says. "If he were alive today / Can you Imagine?"

    Rocco is twenty-nine years old, has prematurely gray dreadlocks, and speaks only in Haiku. It’s his thing, he told Mary, when he applied for his job. She was willing to overlook that little verbal tic because of his prodigious talent creating foam art—the patterned swirls on top of lattes and mochaccinos. He can make ferns, hearts, unicorns, Lady Gaga, spiderwebs, and once, on Mary’s birthday, Pope Benedict XVI. Me, I like him because of one of Rocco’s other things: he doesn’t look people in the eye. He says that’s how someone can steal your soul.

    Amen to that.

    Ran out of baguettes, Rocco tells me. Gave angry folks free coffee. He pauses, counting syllables mentally. Tonight make extra.

    Mary begins to lower herself from her rigging. How was your meeting?

    The usual. Has it been this quiet all day?

    She hits the ground with a soft thud. No, we had the preschool drop-off rush and a good lunch. Getting to her feet, she wipes her hands on her jeans and follows me into the kitchen. By the way, Satan called, she says.

    Let me guess. He wants a special-order birthday cake for Joseph Kony?

    By Satan, Mary says, as if I haven’t spoken, I mean Adam.

    Adam is my boyfriend. Except not, because he’s already someone else’s husband. "Adam’s not that bad."

    He’s hot, Sage, and he’s emotionally destructive. If the shoe fits… Mary shrugs. I’m leaving Rocco to man the cannons while I head up to the shrine to do a little weeding. Although she’s not employed there, no one seems to mind if the former nun with the green thumb keeps the flowers and plants in good form. Gardening—sweaty, machete-hacking, root-digging, bush-dragging gardening—is Mary’s relaxation. Sometimes I think she doesn’t sleep at all, she just photosynthesizes like her beloved plants. She seems to function with more energy and speed than the rest of us ordinary mortals; she makes Tinker Bell look like a sloth. The hostas have been staging a coup.

    Have fun, I say, tying the strings of my apron, and focusing on the night’s work.

    At the bakery, I have a gigantic spiral mixer, because I make multiple loaves at a time. I have pre-ferments in various temperatures stored in carefully marked canisters. I use an Excel spreadsheet to figure out the baker’s percentage, a crazy math that always adds up to more than 100 percent. But my favorite kind of baking is just a bowl, a wooden spoon, and four elements: flour, water, yeast, salt. Then, all you need is time.

    Making bread is an athletic event. Not only does it require dashing around to several stations of the bakery as you check rising loaves or mix ingredients or haul the mixing bowl out of its cradle—but it also takes muscle power to activate the gluten in the dough. Even people who wouldn’t be able to tell a poolish from a biga know that to make bread, you have to knead it. Push and roll, push and fold, a rhythmic workout on your floured countertop. Do it right, and you’ll release a protein called gluten—strands that let uneven pockets of carbon dioxide form in the loaves. After seven or eight minutes—long enough for your mind to have made a to-do list of chores around the house, or for you to replay the last conversation you had with your significant other and what he really meant—the consistency of the dough will transform. Smooth, supple, cohesive.

    That’s the point where you have to leave the dough alone. It’s silly to anthropomorphize bread, but I love the fact that it needs to sit quietly, to retreat from touch and noise and drama, in order to evolve.

    I have to admit, I often feel that way myself.

    Bakers’ hours can do strange things to a brain. When your workday begins at 5:00 p.m. and lasts through dawn, you hear each click of the minute hand on the clock over the stove, you see movements in the shadows. You do not recognize the echo of your own voice; you begin to think you are the only person left alive on earth. I’m convinced there’s a reason most murders happen at night. The world just feels different for those of us who come alive after dark. It’s more fragile and unreal, a replica of the one everyone else inhabits.

    I’ve been living in reverse for so long now that it’s not a hardship to go to bed when the sun is rising, and to wake when it’s low in the sky. Most days this means I get about six hours of sleep before I return to Our Daily Bread to start all over again, but being a baker means accepting a fringe existence, one I welcome wholeheartedly. The people I see are convenience store clerks, Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through cashiers, nurses switching shifts. And Mary and Rocco, of course, who close up the bakery shortly after I arrive. They lock me in, like the queen in Rumpelstiltskin, not to count grain but to transform it before morning into the quick breads and yeasted loaves that fill the shelves and glass counters.

    I was never a people person, but now I actively prefer to be alone. This setup suits me best: I get to work by myself; Mary is the front man responsible for chatting up the customers and making them want to return for another visit. I hide.

    Baking, for me, is a form of meditation. I get pleasure out of slicing up the voluminous mass of dough, eyeballing it to just the right amount of kilos on a scale for a perfect artisan loaf. I love how the snake of a baguette quivers beneath my palm as I roll it out. I love the sigh that a risen loaf makes when I first punch it down. I like curling my toes inside my clogs and stretching my neck from side to side to work out the kinks. I like knowing there will be no phone calls, no interruptions.

    I am already well into making the one hundred pounds of product I make every night by the time I hear Mary return from her gardening stint up the hill and start to close up shop. Rinsing my hands in the industrial sink, I pull off the cap I wear to cover my hair while I’m working and walk to the front of the shop. Rocco is zipping up his motorcycle jacket. Through the plate-glass windows, I see heat lightning arc across the bruise of the sky.

    See you tomorrow, Rocco says. Unless we die in our sleep. / What a way to go.

    I hear a bark, and realize that the bakery isn’t empty. The one lone customer is Mr. Weber, from my grief group, and his tiny dog. Mary sits with him, a cup of tea in her hands.

    He struggles to get to his feet when he sees me and does an awkward little bow. Hello again.

    You know Josef? Mary asks.

    Grief group is like AA—you don’t out someone unless you have his permission. We’ve met, I reply, shaking my hair forward to screen my face.

    His dachshund comes closer on her leash to lick at a spot of flour on my pants. Eva, he scolds. Manners!

    It’s okay, I tell him, crouching down with relief to pat the dog. Animals never stare.

    Mr. Weber slips the loop of the leash over his wrist and stands. I am keeping you from going home, he says apologetically to Mary.

    Not at all. I enjoy the company. She glances down at the old man’s mug, which is still three-quarters full.

    I don’t know what makes me say what I say. After all, I have plenty to do. But it has started to pour now, a torrential sheet of rain. The only vehicles in the lot are Mary’s Harley and Rocco’s Prius, which means Mr. Weber is either walking home or waiting for the bus. You can stay until Advanced Transit shows up, I tell him.

    Oh, no, Mr. Weber says. This will be an imposition.

    I insist, Mary seconds.

    He nods in gratitude and sits down again. As he cups his hands around the coffee mug, Eva stretches out over his left foot and closes her eyes.

    Have a nice night, Mary says to me. Bake your little heart out.

    But instead of staying with Mr. Weber, I follow Mary into the back room, where she keeps her biker rain gear. I’m not cleaning up after him.

    Okay, Mary says, pausing in the middle of pulling on her chaps.

    "I don’t do customers." In fact when I stumble out of the bakery at 7:00 a.m. and see the shop filled with businessmen buying bagels and housewives slipping wheat loaves into their recycled grocery bags, I am always a little surprised to remember there is a world outside my industrial kitchen. I imagine it’s the way a patient who’s flatlined must feel when he is shocked back into a heartbeat and thrown into the fuss and bustle of life—too much information and sensory overload.

    "You invited him to stay," Mary reminds me.

    I don’t know anything about him. What if he tries to rob us? Or worse?

    Sage, he’s over ninety. Do you think he’s going to cut your throat with his dentures? Mary shakes her head. Josef Weber is as close as you can get to being canonized while you’re still alive. Everyone in Westerbrook knows him—he used to coach kids’ baseball; he organized the cleanup of Riverhead Park; he taught German at the high school for a zillion years. He’s everyone’s adoptive, cuddly grandfather. I don’t think he’s going to sneak into the kitchen and stab you with a bread knife while your back is turned.

    I’ve never heard of him, I murmur.

    That’s because you live under a rock, Mary says.

    Or in a kitchen. When you sleep all day and work all night, you don’t have time for things like newspapers or television. It was three days before I heard that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

    Good night. She gives me a quick hug. Josef’s harmless. Really. The worst he could do is talk you to death.

    I watch her open the rear door of the bakery. She ducks at the onslaught of driving rain and waves without looking back. I close the door behind her and lock it.

    By the time I return to the bakery’s dining room, Mr. Weber’s mug is empty and the dog is on his lap. Sorry, I say. Work stuff.

    You don’t have to entertain me. I know you have much to do.

    I have a hundred loaves to shape, bagels to boil, bialys to fill. Yes, you could say I’m busy. But to my surprise I hear myself say, It can wait a few minutes.

    Mr. Weber gestures to the chair Mary had occupied. Then please. Sit.

    I do, but I check my watch. My timer will go off in three minutes, then I will have to go back into the kitchen. So, I say. I guess we’re in for some weather.

    We are always in for some weather, Mr. Weber replies. His words sound as if he is biting them off a string: precise, clipped. "Tonight however we are in for some bad weather. He glances up at me. What brought you to the grief group?"

    My gaze locks on his. There is a rule that, at group, we are not pressed to share if we’re not ready. Certainly Mr. Weber hasn’t been ready; it seems rude that he’d ask someone else to do what he himself isn’t willing to do. But then again, we aren’t at group.

    My mother, I say, and tell him what I’ve told everyone else there. Cancer.

    He nods in sympathy. I am sorry for your loss, he says stiffly.

    And you? I ask.

    He shakes his head. Too many to count.

    I don’t even know how to respond to that. My grandma is always talking about how at her age, her friends are dropping like flies. I imagine for Mr. Weber, the same is true.

    You have been a baker long?

    A few years, I answer.

    It is an odd profession for a young woman. Not very social.

    Has he seen what I look like? It suits me.

    You are very good at what you do.

    Anyone can bake bread, I say.

    But not everyone can do it well.

    From the kitchen comes the sound of the timer buzzing; it wakes up Eva, who begins to bark. Almost simultaneously there is a sweep of approaching lights through the glass windows of the bakery as the Advanced Transit bus slows at its corner stop. Thank you for letting me stay a bit, he says.

    No problem, Mr. Weber.

    His face softens. Please. Call me Josef.

    I watch him tuck Eva into his coat and open his umbrella. Come back soon, I say, because I know Mary would want me to.

    Tomorrow, he announces, as if we have set a date. As he walks out of the bakery he squints into the bright beams of the bus.

    In spite of what I have told Mary, I go to collect his dirty mug and plate, only to notice that Mr. Weber—Josef—has left behind the little black book he is always writing in when he sits here. It is banded with elastic.

    I grab it and run into the storm. I step right into a gigantic puddle, which soaks my clog. Josef, I call out, my hair plastered to my head. He turns, Eva’s beady little eyes poking out from between the folds of his raincoat. You left this.

    I hold up the black book and walk toward him. Thank you, he says, safely slipping it into his pocket. I don’t know what I would have done without it. He tips his umbrella, so that it shelters me as well.

    Your Great American Novel? I guess. Ever since Mary installed free WiFi at Our Daily Bread, the place has been crawling with people who intend to be published.

    He looks startled. Oh, no. This is just a place to keep all my thoughts. They get away from me, otherwise. If I don’t write down that I like your kaiser rolls, for example, I won’t remember to order them the next time I come.

    I think most people could use a book like that.

    The driver of the Advanced Transit bus honks twice. We both turn in the direction of the noise. I wince as the beams of the headlights flash across my face.

    Josef pats his pocket. It’s important to remember, he says.

    One of the first things Adam told me was that I was pretty, which should have been my first clue that he was a liar.

    I met him on the worst day of my life, the day my mother died. He was the funeral director my sister Pepper contacted. I have a vague recollection of him explaining the process to us, and showing us the different kinds of caskets. But the first time I really noticed him was when I made a scene at my mother’s service.

    My sisters and I all knew my mother’s favorite song had been Somewhere over the Rainbow. Pepper and Saffron had wanted to hire a professional to sing it, but I had other plans. It wasn’t just the song my mother had loved, it was one particular rendition of it. And I’d promised my mother that Judy Garland would sing at her funeral.

    News flash, Sage, said Pepper. Judy Garland isn’t taking bookings these days, unless you’re a medium.

    In the end, my sisters went along with what I wanted—mostly because I framed this as one of Mom’s dying wishes. It was my job to give the CD to the funeral director—to Adam. I downloaded the song from the Wizard of Oz soundtrack on iTunes. As the service began, he played it over the speaker system.

    Unfortunately it wasn’t Somewhere over the Rainbow. It was the Munchkins, performing Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead.

    Pepper burst into tears. Saffron had to leave the service, she was so upset.

    Me, I started to giggle.

    I don’t know why. It just spurted out of me, like a shower of sparks. And suddenly every single person in that room was staring at me, with the angry red lines bisecting my face and the inappropriate laughter fizzing out of my mouth.

    Oh my God, Sage, Pepper hissed. "How could you?"

    Feeling panicked, cornered, I stood up from the front pew, took two steps, and passed out.

    I came to in Adam’s office. He was kneeling next to the couch and he had a damp washcloth in his hand, which he was pressing right against my scar. Immediately, I curled away from him, covering the left side of my face with my hand. You know, he said, as if we were in the middle of a conversation, in my line of work, there aren’t any secrets. I know who’s had plastic surgery, and who’s survived a mastectomy. I know who had their appendix out and who had surgery for a double hernia. The person may have a scar, but it also means they have a story. And besides, he said, that wasn’t what I noticed when I first saw you.

    Yeah, right.

    He put his hand on my shoulder. I noticed, he said, that you were pretty.

    He had sandy hair and honey-brown eyes. His palm was warm against my skin. I had never been beautiful, not before everything happened, and certainly not after. I shook my head, clearing it. I didn’t eat anything this morning… I said. I have to get back out there—

    Relax. I suggested that we take a fifteen-minute break before we start up again. Adam hesitated. Maybe you’d like to borrow a playlist from my iPod instead.

    I could have sworn I downloaded the right song. My sisters hate me.

    I’ve seen worse, Adam replied.

    I doubt it.

    I once watched a drunk mistress climb into a coffin with the deceased, until the wife dragged her away and knocked her out cold.

    My eyes widened. For real?

    Yeah. So this…? He shrugged. Small potatoes.

    "But I laughed."

    Lots of people laugh at funerals, Adam said. It’s because we’re uncomfortable with death, and that’s a reflex. Besides, I bet your mother would much rather know you were celebrating her life with a laugh than know she had you in tears.

    My mother would have thought it was funny, I whispered.

    There you go. Adam handed me the CD in its sleeve.

    I shook my head. You can keep it. In case Naomi Campbell becomes a client.

    Adam grinned. I bet your mom would have thought that was funny, too, he said.

    A week after the funeral, he called me to see how I was doing. I thought this was strange on two counts—because I’d never heard of that kind of customer service from a funeral home, and because Pepper had been the one to hire him, not me. I was so touched by his concern that I baked him a quick babka and took it to the funeral home one day on my way home from work. I’d hoped to drop it off without running into him, but as it turned out, he was there.

    He asked me if I had time for coffee.

    You should know that even that day, he was wearing his wedding ring. In other words, I knew what I was getting into. My only defense is that I never expected to be adored by a man, not after what had happened to me, and yet here was Adam—attractive and successful—doing just that. Every fiber of morality in me that said Adam belonged to someone else was being countermanded by the quiet whisper in my head: Beggars can’t be choosers; take what you can get; who else would ever love someone like you?

    I knew it was wrong to get involved with a married man, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love with him, or wishing he would fall in love with me. I had resigned myself to living alone, working alone, being alone for the rest of my life. Even if I had found someone who professed not to care about the weird puckering on the left side of my face, how would I ever know if he loved me, or pitied me? They looked so similar, and I had never been very good at reading people. The relationship between Adam and me was secretive, kept behind closed doors. In other words, it was squarely in my comfort zone.

    Before you go and say it’s creepy to let someone who’s been embalming people touch you, let me tell you how wrong you are. Anyone who’s died—my mother included—would be lucky to have that last touch be as gentle as Adam’s. I sometimes think that because he spends so much time with the dead, he is the only person who really appreciates the marvel of a living body. When we make love, he lingers over the pulse of my carotid, at my wrist, behind my knees—the spots where my blood beats.

    On the days when Adam comes to my place, I sacrifice an hour or two of sleep in order to be with him. He can pretty much sneak away anytime, thanks to the nature of his business, which requires him to be on call 24/7. It’s also why his wife hasn’t found it suspicious when he disappears.

    I think Shannon knows, Adam says today, when I am lying in his arms.

    Really? I try to ignore how this makes me feel, as if I am at the top of the roller coaster hill, and I can no longer see the oncoming track.

    There was a new bumper sticker on my car this morning. It says I ♥ MY WIFE.

    How do you know she put it there?

    "Because I didn’t," Adam says.

    I consider this for a moment. The bumper sticker might not be sarcastic. It could just be blissfully ignorant.

    Adam married his high school girlfriend, whom he’d dated through college. The funeral home where he works is his wife’s family business and has been for fifty years. At least twice a week he tells me he is going to leave Shannon, but I know this isn’t true. First, he’d be walking away from his career. Second, it is not just Shannon he’d be leaving, but also Grace and Bryan, his twins. When he talks about them, his voice sounds different. It sounds the way I hope it sounds when he talks about me.

    He probably doesn’t talk about me, though. I mean, who would he tell that he’s having an affair? The only person I’ve told is Mary, and in spite of the fact that we are both at fault for getting involved, she acts as if he was the one to seduce me.

    Let’s go away this weekend, I suggest.

    On Sundays, I don’t work; the bakery is closed on Mondays. We could disappear for twenty-four glorious hours, instead of hiding in my bedroom with the shades drawn against the sunlight and his car—with its new bumper sticker—parked around the corner at a Chinese restaurant.

    Once Shannon came into the bakery. I saw her through the open window between the kitchen and the shop. I knew it was her, because I’ve seen pictures on Adam’s Facebook page. I was certain she had come to ream me out, but she just bought some pumpernickel rolls and left. Afterward, Mary found me sitting on the floor of the kitchen, weak with relief. When I told her about Adam, she asked me one question: Do you love him?

    Yes, I told her.

    No you don’t, Mary said. You love that he needs to hide as much as you do.

    Adam’s fingers graze my scar. Even after all this time, although it’s not medically possible, the skin tingles. You want to go away, he repeats. You want to walk down the street in broad daylight with me, so everyone can see us together.

    When he puts it like that, I realize it’s not what I want at all. I want to squirrel away with him behind the closed doors of a luxury hotel in the White Mountains, or in a cottage in Montana. But I don’t want him to be right, so I say, Maybe I do.

    Okay, Adam says, twisting my curls around his fingers. The Maldives.

    I come up on an elbow. I’m being serious.

    Adam looks at me. Sage, he says, you won’t even look in a mirror.

    I Googled Southwest flights. For forty-nine dollars we could get to Kansas City.

    Adam strokes his finger down the xylophone of my rib cage. Why would we want to go to Kansas City?

    I push his hand away. Stop distracting me, I say. "Because it’s not here."

    He rolls on top of me. Book the flights.

    Really?

    Really.

    What if you’re paged? I ask.

    They’re not going to get any deader if they have to wait, Adam points out.

    My heart starts to beat erratically. It’s tantalizing, this thought of going public. If I walk around holding the hand of a handsome man who obviously wants to be with me, does that make me normal, by association? What are you going to tell Shannon?

    That I’m crazy about you.

    I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I’d met Adam when I was younger. We went to the same high school, but ten years apart. We both wound up back in our hometown. We work alone, at odd hours, doing jobs most ordinary people would never consider for a career.

    That I can’t stop thinking about you, Adam adds, his teeth raking my earlobe. That I’m hopelessly in love.

    I have to say, the thing I adore most about Adam is exactly what’s keeping him from being with me all the time: that when he loves you, he loves you unerringly, completely, overwhelmingly. It’s how he feels about his twins, which is why he is home every night to hear how the biology test went for Grace or to see Bryan score the first home run of the baseball season.

    Do you know Josef Weber? I ask, suddenly remembering what Mary said.

    Adam rolls onto his back. I’m hopelessly in love, he repeats. "Do you know Josef Weber? Yeah, that’s a normal response…"

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1