the book

“An engrossing read.”
The Miami Herald

“Charming.”
Ladies’ Home Journal

“Perfect for the book-club circuit and beyond.”
Kirkus Reviews

Friendship Bread by Darien Gee

Ballantine Books | 978-0-345-52534-5 | April 2011

Hardcover, audio and e-book:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Powell’s | Indiebound
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An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.

One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: I hope you enjoy it. Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.

Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She’d just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.

When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illinois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline Davis is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the warm kitchen of Madeline’s tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.

In no time, everyone in Avalon is baking Amish Friendship Bread. But even as the town unites for a benevolent cause and Julia becomes ever closer to her new friends, she realizes the profound necessity of confronting the painful past she shares with her sister.

About life and loss, friendship and community, food and family, Friendship Bread tells the uplifting story of what endures when even the unthinkable happens.

“You’ll root all the way as these characters stumble toward forgiveness, understanding,
and, ultimately, celebration. A perfect book club selection,
Friendship Bread is a treat worth sharing with all the women in your life.”
Kate Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Friday Night Knitting Club

“A vivid, tender portrait of friends, a window into the intricacies of friendship itself.
Darien Gee writes with great warmth and wisdom, with deep insight into her characters.”
Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Boat

“The wonderful characters in Friendship Bread face life-changing adversity
of the sort that either brings us down or transforms us into better people.
Darien Gee has a writer’s heart and a baker’s sense of mixing it all just right.
The result is a book you will read over and over.”
Nancy Pickard, New York Times bestselling author of The Scent of Rain and Lightning

To see what readers are saying about Friendship Bread, visit Goodreads.

Read all about it!

From BookPage: “Behind the Book: Recipe Gives Rise to Novel.”
From Bookreporter: “Darien Gee on Baking and Writing with Her Kids.”
From Honolulu Advertiser: “Baking Bread Builds Bonds.”