Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read The Lost Baker Of Vienna. This is a heart wrenching story about family and just how much we are willing to risk for those we love. This dual timeline tale tells us about Zoe & Chana. This is a book you will not be able to put down. I devoured this book. Grab tissues.

Wow what a beautiful book. Chana and Zoe are such great characters. But also Henri and Aron are too. I loved the look back in time to help Zoe learn about her family.
The things Chana has to go through to make a life for herself, we're incredible. She is a very hopeful and optimistic character. There are moments of love and beauty, but there is also heartache and sorrow that she pushes through to make the life she ends up leading.
Zoe's determination as she learns more about her family, was great to watch her blossom.
I liked learning about these characters and their journeys through different times and across continents. I loved the look at baking too.
I really enjoyed reading this story and will be recommending it to everyone!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

The Lost Baker of Vienna is a gorgeous dual-timeline, dual-POV story set in both the aftermath of World War II and in 2018. The primary plot is that of Chana, a Jewish Holocaust survivor trying to make it in war-torn Vienna. She and her mother and younger brother Aron are constantly dealing with hunger and facing rampant physical violence, so they seek employment and protection as they wait to (they hope) be granted visas to move to America.

The second timeline is in 2018, when Zoe Rosenzweig finds mysterious papers among her recently-deceased grandfather’s things. Her grandfather was a Holocaust survivor who had raised Zoe, but very rarely ever spoke about the horrific things he suffered during and after the war.
Now, Zoe is trying to piece together details about not only her grandfather’s life, but that of her grandfather’s sister Chana, who perished in a fire instead of coming to America with her family.

I was immediately swept up in both the story of Chana and Aron, just teenagers in postwar Vienna, and the story of Zoe, desperate for a connection to her past, since she has no living relatives as far as she knows. Chana is full of grit and determination to not only survive, but to be her own person and pursue opening her own bakery in honor of her late father’s memory. The choices that these characters made during and soon after the war are at times difficult to imagine. I also hoped for Zoe to find a clearer understanding of her family and what they went through.

This book is a testament to the human spirit, to the courage of those who survived as well as those who, tragically, did not.

Thank you to Viking Penguin and NetGalley for the chance to read an ARC of this novel.