The Baker

“An absorbing work . . . One puts down this novel with the feeling of having shared in the lives of some very real, quietly decent, people.”
–The Christian Science Monitor

“Hond illuminates the long-standing tribal tensions and accords between blacks and Jews, and in a fast-paced series of Dickensian plot twists, he shows the increasing interdependence of their griefs and hopes.”
–The New Yorker

“A likable, sweet-natured, compassionate first novel . . . an impressive debut, and Paul Hond is definitely a writer to watch.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] wonderful first novel . . . It’s no overstatement to say that The Baker is a deeply moral book, and not just because it is willing to take on . . . critical social issues. It is, rather, because of that rare quality we find so often in Malamud: the all-encompassing compassion for the novel’s characters. We come to know these people . . . we mourn the distortions wrought by personal and social history. The novel’s compassion builds our own.”
–The Forward