The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf

Our dreaded, daily misuse of carbohydrates has even the U.S. Surgeon General concerned. In the Hans Christian Andersen story, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, waste is at issue more than healthy eating. Inger treasures her shoes more than the bread she was asked to deliver to her family. Therefore, as with any failed diet plan, Inger sinks to the bottom of a bog and turns to stone. The pure weight of Inger's sin holds her in place while her eyes dart about and her ears hear every ugly thing said about her in her absence. In Kathryn Davis' novel, the idea of Inger's sin is revisited by Helle Ten Brix, a spunky lesbian composer who seeks to change the world's view of the bread sin. Frances Thorn and Helle Ten Brix are unlikely friends in life and odd partners after Helle's death. As Frances seeks to piece together clues about Helle's unusual life and to complete an inherited unfinished opera for her dead friend, she takes a revealing journey that proves both entertaining and thought-provoking for the reader.

Kathryn Davis is a master storyteller in the truest sense of the word. Not only does she cast a spell over her readers, compelling them to read on and on, but her subject matter is unique and uniquely presented. A fictional romantic mystery involving the intertwining of two unlikely characters, an elderly, Danish composer of operas and a young American single mother, the story begins at Helle's hospital deathbed and is told through Frances Thorn, the young mother and sole support of twin girls who was drawn into an intimate friendship by the elderly female composer. When Helle dies, she leaves Frances a legacy: An unfinished opera. Frances is faced with the task of its completion. Rummaging through the things that Helle has left behind, Frances comes to grips with her own identity as she discovers the hidden secrets of Helle's life. Readers are treated to a look at Denmark and the Danish not found in a tour guide and a sense of the operatic that will move even the most hardened souls to music. Through Helle and Frances, Kathryn Davis tells us that even in the darkest corners of our deepest secrets, liberty and salvation may be found.