The Bread Maker

Book excerpt: It’s 1933 and Mabel just wants to bake bread. She leaves the cold shack she shares with her father for the warmth of her kneading table at Cameron’s store and gets caught in a snow storm, sparking events that expose the raw humanity of those around her. Loyalty and betrayal, guilt and shame, and faith and doubt collide as the dirty secrets of the bleak coal mining community throw lives into turmoil. A series of brutal attacks, a murder, and an ambitious sergeant intent on seeing someone hang, reveal a town, oppressed as much by its dreary prospects, as it is by its institutionalized corruption, sexism and racism. Mabel just wants to bake bread, but she has her own secrets to protect. The Bread Maker is a rich, beautifully told narrative that seamlessly weaves humour and tragedy into a touching story about life, love and the potential of the human spirit to overcome great odds.