I cover my dough with a damp towel and place the bowl in the oven with the pilot light on, and we wait together, watching Scarlett O’Hara lose more than she gains, and when intermission comes I shape my loaf into a fat braid—again because it’s mine and I want to—and let it puff again under the towel, on the counter this time, and play the remainder of the movie. I don’t care for it, but happily sit through the characters’ pouting and drinking and shouting at one another if it means I spend the afternoon tucked beneath my mother’s arm, my cheek on her soft breast, her fingers twining my hair.
The bread goes into the oven. I keep the light on and watch it bake as my mother prepares our beef stew supper. My father stumbles into the house, weary from his daylong battle to keep the delivery truck from skidding off the weather-beaten roads, kisses my mother more tenderly than Rhett ever did Scarlett, and changes into dry socks. I set the table and she spoons hot meat and root vegetables into bowls, and I take the bread from the oven, burning my wrist on the rack. The loaf is too flat and dark, and it should cool but we don’t let it, instead slicing it with Oma’s long, toothy knife, the still-humid crumb tearing unevenly.
It’s beautiful, Liesl, my mother says.
For real?
Yes. Her cool fingers touch the blister on my wrist. You are now a keeper of bread.
Recipe Index
Barley-Wheat Sourdough, 235
Cecelia’s Dark Chocolate Pain au Levain, 62
Claudia’s Christstollen, 154
Liesl’s Orange Chai Boule, 17
Pumpernickel Onion Sourdough Bread, 207
Sourdough Breakfast Cake, 292
“Stick to Your Buns” Sticky Buns, 192
Wild Rise Petite Baguette, 110
Wild White Sandwich Bread, 250
Wild Yeast Starter, 45
Reading Group Guide
1. Liesl’s grandmother quotes a German proverb to her: Whose bread I eat, his song I sing. What does she mean by this? How does this relate to your daily life? Your faith journey?
2. When Liesl’s grandmother dies, Claudia says to her, “It will come again, Liesl. Grief always does. And in the face of it, you’ll need to decide if you’ll step over the pieces and leave them to be trampled, or if you’ll gather them up for salvage.” How have you reacted to grief when you’ve seen it in the lives of others? In your own life?
3. Seamus isn’t the typical romantic interest often found in novels. How do his authenticity and idiosyncrasies give him the ability to draw Liesl from within herself? What about him helps Liesl come to view him as a safe person?
4. In an age when so many people are searching for—and in ways, creating—their own fifteen minutes of fame, do you think it’s realistic for Liesl to turn down her own television show? How would you choose if you were in her position?
5. Seamus has told Cecelia her mother left them because she “never learned how to love.” Cecelia, however, states she didn’t realize loving someone was something needed to be taught. What do you think? Do you agree with Seamus or Cecelia?
6. Intergenerational ties are strongly represented in Stones for Bread, particularly between Liesl, Claudia, and Oma. Do you think we, as a society, have lost some of those bonds today?
7. Liesl, Xavier, and Jude all share an intense love of bread and baking, and it knits them together in a way that gives them a deeper understanding of one another. Have you had a relationship based on the sharing of a skill or passion? How has that influenced your life at present?
8. Did you learn anything new about the history of bread and how one simple food has shaped the human experience? What fact did you find most interesting?
Acknowledgments
I always come to the acknowledgments scratching my head, knowing there are more people to thank than I can ever fit onto these pages. Here is my non-exhaustive list, with apologies to all those I’ve neglected to include, compounded by the fact I wrote this while thirty-nine weeks pregnant, which any woman who’s been pregnant understands is a rather forgetful time.
Thank you:
Thomas Nelson Publishers, for taking a chance on this novel.
Amanda Bostic, editorial director at HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and my personal editor, for being my champion and advocate. Your enthusiasm for Stones for Bread means more to me than I can express.
Line editor extraordinaire, Rachelle Gardner.
Bill Jensen, my agent and friend and fellow home artisan baker, who offered this idea to me.
Those who helped with the languages represented in this novel: Claudia Bell (whose name I borrowed for Liesl’s mother and who I hope ins’t too disappointed by her fictional namesake), Melinda Bokelman, and Jen DeBusk.
All my recipe tasters and testers.
Everyone who has prayed for me, my writing, and my family, especially the people of Clifton Park Center Baptist Church, Redeemer Reformed Presbyterian Church, and Gentle Christian Mothers.
My parents, Ann and Joseph Parrish, for their continued and seemingly endless support.
My sister, Laura Parrish Combs, for loving me even though I hate to answer my phone, and for all the hand-me-downs.
My children—Gray, Jacob, Claire, and Noah—who continue to challenge and grow me.
And Chris, who tells me every day he loves me. No regrets.
Invaluable in writing the history portions of Stones for Bread was H. E. Jacob’s brilliant 6,000 Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History, published by Skyhorse Publishing (2007), forward by Peter Reinhart.
About the Author
Author photo by Allen Clark
Christa Parrish is the award-winning author of four novels, including the 2009 ECPA Fiction Book of the Year Watch Over Me. Married to author and pastor Chris Coppernoll, Christa co-labors with him in co-leading their church’s youth ministry program, and weekly Bible study. When not writing, she is chauffeuring her Grand Champion purple belt to and from Taekwondo classes, teaching a preschooler the alphabet, and changing newborn diapers. She is now also slightly obsessed with the art of baking bread.
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