At the heart of Shirley Rus­sak Wachtel’s new nov­el, The Bak­er of Lost Mem­o­ries, is Lena, the daugh­ter of Holo­caust sur­vivors, who grows up in the shad­ow of both her par­ents’ trau­ma and the absence of her mur­dered sis­ter, Ruby. As the sto­ry unfolds, Wach­tel weaves togeth­er themes of love, loss, and self-dis­cov­ery, cul­mi­nat­ing in a sur­pris­ing and emo­tion­al­ly sat­is­fy­ing conclusion.

Lena’s child­hood is shaped both by her par­ents’ resilience and their emo­tion­al dis­tance. While they are build­ing a new life in Brook­lyn, they remain haunt­ed by the past. Through­out her life, Lena strug­gles with an unspo­ken ques­tion: is she tru­ly want­ed, or does she exist as a stand-in for the sis­ter she nev­er knew? Her clos­est con­fi­dante is Pearl, a viva­cious and wise best friend who pro­vides solace — until an unex­pect­ed acci­dent pulls Pearl away, deep­en­ing Lena’s sense of uncer­tain­ty. This feel­ing fol­lows Lena into adult­hood, where she nav­i­gates rela­tion­ships and career deci­sions while try­ing to define her own iden­ti­ty apart from her family’s history. 

The novel’s focus shifts between Lena, her par­ents, and Ruby. These per­spec­tives offer insight into how each char­ac­ter process­es mem­o­ry and love. Lena’s mar­riage dif­fers stark­ly from her par­ents’, and she strug­gles to define it on her own terms, even as her par­ents attempt to sup­port her with­out impos­ing their own past expe­ri­ences. Wach­tel skill­ful­ly por­trays the del­i­cate nego­ti­a­tion of famil­ial expec­ta­tions and per­son­al autonomy.

Through­out the novel,baking serves as a pow­er­ful sym­bol. In Poland, Lena’s par­ents ran a bak­ery where their beloved daugh­ter Ruby worked, her skill and pres­ence a source of joy. By the time Lena is grow­ing up in Amer­i­ca, the bak­ery is gone, and the act of bak­ing has become an endur­ing wound for her moth­er rather than a source of com­fort. When Lena unex­pect­ed­ly dis­cov­ers both tal­ent and joy in bak­ing, her mother’s reac­tion is one of sur­prise rather than pride — an ongo­ing chal­lenge for moth­er and daugh­ter alike. 

Wachtel’s nov­el is par­tic­u­lar­ly com­pelling in its explo­ration of fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, includ­ing mar­riage. Lena often finds her­self caught between com­pet­ing expec­ta­tions — her own desires, what she believes her par­ents want for her, what her hus­band clear­ly wants of her— and the pow­er of the past.

Rather than dwelling on loss, Wach­tel explores how peo­ple adapt — some­times imper­fect­ly — to the weight of mem­o­ry, both per­son­al and inher­it­ed. Her writ­ing cap­tures the com­plex­i­ty of remem­brance, not as mere nos­tal­gia but as a force that active­ly shapes iden­ti­ty. In The Bak­er of Lost Mem­o­ries, the past is not just his­to­ry; it is a liv­ing pres­ence, influ­enc­ing the choic­es, rela­tion­ships, and dreams of those who car­ry it forward.