I read this short story here: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/theres-magic-in-bread/

There's also an author interview linked on that page, which I also enjoyed: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/non-fiction/author-spotlights/author-spotlight-effie-seiberg/

This short story has two parallel perspectives centered around baking bread, and about feelings of despair and helplessness; one half about struggling with that helplessness in this covid pandemic with home baking, and the other half running a bakery (and involving a bread golem!) in a more historic setting with antisemitic violence and policing.

I certainly have needed a lot of escapist literature in the past few years.  (Even as I write this my brain pops in to say...ok but what if we reread the entire Vorkosigan or Foreigner or Wayfarers series again????) But it's also deeply refreshing to read a piece that directly addresses the pandemic, as well as addressing my own feelings of helplessness when things are falling apart around me and I don't feel like I have any leverage to fix it.

I am not sure the message that even things that don't help still help sinks in for me; not in the sense that the story is ineffective but more I find myself coming up against a lot of internal friction and resistance. Some of this I think is continuing to come to terms with the fact that true solutions to big problems are slow communally-driven systemic changes, and that will rarely feel tangible on a personal level, even if I'm dealing with them as directly as is possible. Deep down, I too hunger for the empowerment of creating my own bread golem and making tangible change in the world.