- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Black Swan (1 Jan 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 055277104X
- ISBN-13: 978-0552771047
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 2.4 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 198,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
A handsome French baker looks like being the secret ingredient to refresh Esme’s stale life. But is the recipe for happiness closer to home?
From the Back Cover
Esme has an adoring husband, a treasured son, an evil goat, some angry bees and a suspicion that she will never be happy again. Even baking her precious sourdough no longer works its usual magic. All it does is transport her back to the salty little French bakery where she found and lost her first true love, Louis, the village boulanger. When a chance meeting with this bewitching morsel from her past breathes fresh hope into Esme’s life, the grass starts to look greener on his side of the fence. But is Louis really the secret ingredient Esme needs for a blissful future? Or is the recipe for happiness closer to home?
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Fifteen years later, seventy feet up in the Suffolk seaside air, Esme was juggling quinces. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Fifteen years later, seventy feet up in the Suffolk seaside air, Esme was juggling quinces. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having loved Lynch's first book, Blessed Are the Cheesemakers, this was quite a disappointment. Although the plot flicks between Esme's current and sometimes chaotic life, to a summer of teenage awakening in rural France, and features some colourful characters, it still seems to drag.
The best features are the descriptions of baking, although these aren't as evocative as in Blessed Are... or in Joanne Harris's Chocolat, and the characters seem a bit standard (dutiful but dull husband, best friend with disasterous love-life, sarcastic gay friend) and lack the wonderful sparkle of her previous book. The romance is also a bit too Mills & Boon (even for a die-hard romantic like me!)
All in all it is still an ok summer read if you don't fancy anything too demanding, but you may not find yourself raving about it to your friends (as you may have done for Cheesemakers, like I did)
Format:Paperback
This is my second Sarah-Kate Lynch (after reading 'Blessed are the Cheese Makers' earlier this year) and it is every bit as enjoyable. That is actually rather a weak way to describe such a roller coaster book...
Esme has - on the surface - a highly desirable life, but tensions bubbling under are not far away. She buries her angst under a busy routine of tending for her young son, elderly grandmother, partially disabled father in law, adoring husband, idiotic dog, evil goat and a hive of very angry bees. Her bread making, lovingly crafting the delicious Pain Levain sourdough loaves, no longer brings her joy, and her life is falling to pieces. She ruefully comments that although she has all the components for a perfect life, she can't seem to fit them together...
Perhaps she can rekindle her youth again with her first ever lover, the charismatic baker Louis?
The story moves back and forth as Esme tries to settle her life, from humour (and the truly horrible Jemima Jones!) to utter despair. I laughed and cried with Esme, and her multi coloured life.
As with 'Blessed are the Cheese Makers', Sarah-Kate Lynch tantalises the reader with her talk of crispy, chewy crusts, and tender crumbs within... I have to finish this review now as I feel the need to go and bake some bread!!
Enjoy :-)
Esme has - on the surface - a highly desirable life, but tensions bubbling under are not far away. She buries her angst under a busy routine of tending for her young son, elderly grandmother, partially disabled father in law, adoring husband, idiotic dog, evil goat and a hive of very angry bees. Her bread making, lovingly crafting the delicious Pain Levain sourdough loaves, no longer brings her joy, and her life is falling to pieces. She ruefully comments that although she has all the components for a perfect life, she can't seem to fit them together...
Perhaps she can rekindle her youth again with her first ever lover, the charismatic baker Louis?
The story moves back and forth as Esme tries to settle her life, from humour (and the truly horrible Jemima Jones!) to utter despair. I laughed and cried with Esme, and her multi coloured life.
As with 'Blessed are the Cheese Makers', Sarah-Kate Lynch tantalises the reader with her talk of crispy, chewy crusts, and tender crumbs within... I have to finish this review now as I feel the need to go and bake some bread!!
Enjoy :-)
Format:Paperback
I have to say I was surprised to read two of the reviews for this book. A long time fan of this author I have read every one of her books and enjoyed them all. Was there something I missed in By Bread Alone, I wondered? Something that would leap out at me and say 'this wasn't so good' if I should reread it? Well I did read it again, and sorry, but I found it even more enjoyable this time around with its quirky characters and a much loved Granny Mac that only Esme can see. Definitely a keeper.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Esme has her head in the clouds
Esme had a fast paced, corporate life in London 2 years ago, but tragic events led Esme to move her family to their eccentric House in the Clouds in a small, rural village. Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2005 by K. Newman
Nothing Special!!
I agree totally with other review ,i found this book extremely hard to finish because i really didn't care what happened ! Read more
Published on 22 May 2005 by "alimooncat"
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