Saturday, May 24, 2025

Shirley Russak Wachtel's "The Baker of Lost Memories," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Baker of Lost Memories: A Novel by Shirley Russak Wachtel.

The entry begins:
My book, The Baker of Lost Memories, is about Lena, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Anya and Josef. Her parents were once bakers in their own shop in Lodz, Poland before World War II. Working alongside them was their young daughter Ruby, who had a club foot but was perfect in every other way. After tragedy occurs and Anya and Josef make a new home in America, their daughter Lena has questions about the sister she never knew, questions which are mostly met with silence. She feeds a desire to be a baker like her sister to gain her parents’ love. She finds herself confiding in her best friend, Pearl, but when Pearl disappears, Lena builds a new life, marrying and becoming a baker in her own right. Yet she still struggles with gaining her parents’ approval. Only when another unexpected tragedy occurs and Lena finds out about some buried truths, can she rebuild the family she has always needed.

Here is how I would cast the movie version of my book:

Lena—Joey King: Joey has wide dimension as an actress, most recently proven in her role as Halina in the TV drama, We Were the Lucky Ones.

Anya—Kate Winslet: She is a...[read on]
Visit Shirley Wachtel's website.

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Q&A with Shirley Russak Wachtel.

My Book, The Movie: The Baker of Lost Memories.

--Marshal Zeringue