Author Event: Sharon Kurtzman in conversation with Heather Bell Adams

Name: Author Event: Sharon Kurtzman in conversation with Heather Bell Adams
Start: 2025-08-21T18:00:00-04:00
Location: 415 Brooks Street, Wake Forest, NC, United States, North Carolina 27587

Schedule

Thu, 21 Aug, 2025 at 06:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

415 Brooks Street, Wake Forest, NC, United States, North Carolina 27587 | Wake Forest, NC

Page 158 Books is thrilled to welcome debut author Sharon Kurtzman to the store to celebrate her release, The Lost Baker of Vienna. Sharon will be in conversation with author Heather Bell Adams.
A historical novel inspired by the experiences of the author’s own family after the Holocaust, a sweeping saga about survival, loss, love, and the reverberating effects of war In 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig is reeling after the loss of her beloved grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. She becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to her family during the war. Vienna, 1946: Chana Rosenzweig has endured the horrors of war to find herself, her mother, and her younger brother finally free in Vienna. But freedom doesn’t look like they’d imagined it would, as they struggle to make a living and stay safe.
Despite the danger, Chana sneaks out most nights to return to the hotel kitchen where she works as a dishwasher, using the quiet nighttime hours to bake her late father’s recipes. Soon, Chana finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle, torn between the black-market dealer who has offered marriage and protection, and the apprentice baker who shares her passions. How will Chana balance her love of baking against her family’s need for security? The Lost Baker of Vienna affirms the unbreakable bonds of family, shining a light on the courageous spirit of WWII refugees as they battle to survive the overwhelming hardships of a world torn apart.
Sharon Kurtzman worked in television marketing before pursuing her dream of becoming a writer. She earned her MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and her undergraduate degree from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. The Lost Baker of Vienna was inspired by the war and postwar experiences of her own family, who were Holocaust survivors. Kurtzman lives in North Carolina with her husband; they have two adult children.
Heather Bell Adams is the author of two novels, Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press 2017) and The Good Luck Stone (Haywire Books 2020) and a novella, Starring Marilyn Monroe as Herself (forthcoming from Regal House Publishing). Maranatha Road won the gold medal for the Southeast region in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was selected for Deep South Magazine’s Fall/Winter Reading List. The Good Luck Stone appeared on Summer Reading Lists for Deep South Magazine, Writer’s Bone, The Big Other and Buzz Feed and won Best Historical Novel post-1900 in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.