“I thought back to all of the old films I’d watched with Mum. The storyline never did run smoothly and the good people didn’t always get what they deserved, at least not until the end. I had to believe that, no matter the bumps along the way, the journey would be worth it.”

The movies Edith used to watch with her mother, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and other Audrey Hepburn films contribute to her fanciful images of life in Paris, highlighting the novel’s thematic interest in Dreams Versus Reality. Edith imagines herself to be the heroine in one of these movies, which heavily inspires the idealized image of France she has. She has built an elaborate dream of finding herself in France, which will shortly clash with the reality of the experience.

“I’d watched enough films to know what should be happening when you chase after your heart’s desire, but none of that big-screen magic seemed to be happening here. It was just boring, lonely and a bit scary.”

Edith’s fantasy of an adventure in France, built upon the films she watched with her mother, comes immediately into conflict with the reality of the situation, which she finds boring and lonely. Though her disappointed dream does not initially deter her, it does make her more cautious about her hopes later in the novel.

“This made me keenly aware of the fact that she and I were polar opposites. I tried too hard to make people like me, and for the amount of time I succeeded in this endeavor, it hardly made all the effort worthwhile. Yet this cantankerous old dame had everyone eating out of her hand.”

Edith compares her behavior with that of Madame Moreau, who is a foil for Edith throughout much of the novel. Edith is a people pleaser who is desperate for external validation. Madame Moreau, on the other hand, does not appear to care what people think of her and speaks her mind without concern. However, despite their differences, they share a similar relationship to Grief and Healing, a central theme of the novel that defines both of their arcs.

“As I swallowed the dark liquid, I felt a mixture of ecstasy and contentment—it was the kind of completeness I hadn’t felt since— And just like that, a memory dislodged itself from some unknown place.”

This moment highlights Woods’s literary allusion to Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way. Pierre’s own experience when he tries the special vanilla beans for the first time mirrors Proust’s passage about the madeleine and highlights the connection between Woods’s past and present timelines. The vanilla beans’ power to evoke memories and feelings of comfort introduces the magical realism elements of the novel.

“Clocks stopped, the market around him fell into silence, and as clearly as he was standing on a street in Paris, all at once he was back in the town of Compiègne, eating a tart filled with fresh fruit and creme patissiere, with his friend from school, Jean-Yves. In all these years he had never realised, until this moment, until the memory came unbidden, that he had been in love with Jean-Yves.”

Woods’s shift to Pierre’s point-of-view for the first time directly informs the previous scene in which Edith finds the recipe book—creating a structural link between the past and present timelines and revealing details about Pierre’s life and character that Edith couldn’t know. In this scene, Pierre experiences the memory-evoking magic of the vanilla beans for the first time, which helps him realize his feelings for his friend and inspires him to open the bakery in Compiègne.

“Taking photographs of old buildings began as a hobby, but it had become so much more than that. It felt as though keeping some kind of connection with the values of the past could keep him connected to his soul. In the dying light of the evening, he now saw his camera lens as a doorway, some kind of threshold between the life he was living and the idealised version of it he’d once had. The gulf between the two realities was beginning to swallow him up.”

In the first chapter from Hugo’s perspective, he reflects on his passion for photography, highlighting Woods’s motif of creative expression. Photography represents Hugo’s connection to his true self—the person he wishes to be. This moment underscores the growing divide between dreams and reality. In this conflict, Hugo feels compelled to choose reality over creative fulfillment.

“In the process of becoming Mum’s carer, I had to abandon some of my own needs. And while I had no regrets about that and would do the same thing in a heartbeat if I could have her back, I was beginning to wonder if those missing parts would ever return. And who I would be if they did?”

The central focus of Edith’s emotional journey is her struggle to accept and heal from the grief of losing her mother. Part of her inability to face her mother’s death stems from her uncertainty and fear about who she is without her mother. As she reflects here, she has subsumed so much of her own life and desires into her role as caregiver, that she feels lost and afraid without that role to hide behind.

“At first, I couldn’t see anything; he seemed to be staring straight at the ovens. Then I began to notice a flicker…once, twice. A person, a man, I thought, but his outline seemed hazy. Instinctively, I rubbed my eyes, thinking this would give me a clearer view. Gradually, a strange feeling came over me; a heaviness that had not been there moments earlier. That was when I fainted.”

In this passage, the narrative expands the magical realism elements of the novel. The early chapters previously introduced the mystery of the baker in the basement, and now Edith discovers the baker is the ghost of Pierre Moreau. In keeping with the genre expectations of magical realism, the narrative makes little effort to explain the existence of ghosts. Instead, Pierre’s lingering presence demonstrates his love for Madame Moreau and the bakery.

“Every community has an Arnaud. The one who must immerse himself in everyone else’s business. As if knowing everyone else’s private business will give them some kind of advantage and shield their own inconsequential lives from scrutiny. Not only did Arnaud sell the newspapers, he invented his own news about everyone in the town. Idle gossip was one thing, but in wartime, someone like Arnaud became very dangerous indeed.”

Though Arnaud is a minor character on the page, appearing only in exposition and vague memories, his impact on the narrative emphasizes the aftermath of trauma and lays the groundwork for the novel’s thematic exploration of Standing Up for What’s Right. Arnaud’s introduction in this passage foreshadows his later betrayal, which leads to the death of Madame Moreau’s mother.

“‘People need to remember, Edith, otherwise their deaths and the thousands of people who sacrificed their lives trying to protect them will have been for nothing.’

His words were so powerful. Remembrance was the best way to honour people.”

Woods uses Geoff’s history tours to deliver important, expository information about the history of Compiègne during World War II. This information provides crucial context for understanding Pierre’s and Madame Moreau’s past later in the novel. This moment showcases the impact the horrors of WWII still have on the present, exemplified by the lingering connections between the Moreaus and Hugo’s family.

“‘During the war,’ she said, with a clarity that gave strength to his suspicion. Was the hot chocolate from Madame Moreau’s stoking up old memories?

‘My uncle, Arnaud, had a shop there. And he did a very bad thing.’”

Hugo visits his mother, Seraphine, in a care facility near Compiègne. Just as it did for Edith and Hugo, the hot chocolate containing the special vanilla triggers repressed memories in Seraphine. Her comment about her uncle Arnaud once again foreshadows the betrayal he commits against Pierre and Mirela, which has an enormous impact on the present timeline as well.

“Seeing Monsieur Moreau that morning had brought up some unwelcome thoughts about death and the afterlife. […] I couldn’t imagine seeing my mother in that way: as an echo of herself. On the one hand, it would be so wonderful to see her again, but to not be able to touch her or speak to her? I realised that it would be a king of breathtaking torture.”

Seeing the ghost of Pierre up close for the first time pushes Edith to reckon with her grief over her mother’s death. She cannot imagine how difficult it would be to see her mother but be unable to interact with her as Madame Moreau cannot interact with the ghost of her father. In comparing the loss of her mother to Madame Moreau’s loss, Edith gains a new appreciation for the time she had with her mother.

“They had barely survived up to now. And he felt sure their survival rested in his hands. Sending them out onto the street now was a certain death sentence. This war had already stolen so much from him, he wasn’t going to let it steal his humanity as well. Even if it meant dying for it, it was the only thing worth living for.”

Pierre’s act of courage epitomizes the novel’s thematic interest in standing up for what’s right. Despite knowing the dangers, he chooses to help Mirela and Genevieve, risking his own life because he knows it is the right thing to do. His brave and compassionate decision resonates throughout the rest of the novel, impacting the events that follow.

“‘There is nothing to be said. War, genocide, it exposes the ugliness that some people ‘ave in their hearts. But I found that it also brought about the most beautiful kind of humanity. Monsieur Moreau protected me with his life. I was just a young girl, someone he didn’t even know and yet he became my father.’”

Madame Moreau reflects on Pierre’s compassion and humanity, which is all the more powerful in the face of war and genocide. She notes that he did not merely save her life but gave her a loving home as well—something she shares with others in the future. Woods suggests that Pierre’s actions and love ripple outward, eventually impacting Edith’s journey.

“ ‘I once asked Pierre what I should do with all of this love in my heart for Maman; love that now had nowhere to go.’

[…]

‘He told me that the love you have in your heart for someone you cannot be with is never a burden to be carried. It is a gift, he said. A gift you can share in other ways.’”

Like grief, love of all kinds permeates the novel, from Edith’s love for her mother to Pierre’s love that he shares with the entire town of Compiègne. As Madame Moreau explains in this passage, Pierre views love as a gift to be shared. It is also crucial to all three major themes as a form of support necessary for healing, following one’s dreams, and doing what is right.

“He felt trapped. Everyone wanted him to be someone other than who he was. How could it be that no matter how hard he tried, he would always end up disappointing someone? When Stephane had died, everything changed. It was almost as if Hugo was compelled to make up for his loss, to take his place. And this he did, thinking it would keep his parents happy or somehow soften their grief.”

Just as Edith cannot face her mother’s death or give herself the time and space to heal, so too does Hugo struggle with his grief over his brother’s death. Because he cannot accept his brother’s death, he becomes trapped by his grief and guilt, leading to misguided attempts to make up for the loss at the cost of his own dreams.

“It was the perfect recipe, simple though it was, for a broken heart. I felt a sliver of hope return and even some optimism for the future. Maybe things could still work out somehow.”

Edith makes another recipe from Pierre’s recipe book. As with the hot chocolate, this recipe includes the special ingredient of the magical vanilla and inspires feelings of joy and hope. This highlights both the power of the vanilla beans and the healing effects of baking in general, which Edith turns to for comfort.

“I never imagined for a moment that he was part of the problem that was pushing Madame Moreau out of her home. Even though I didn’t like admitting it to myself, I had quietly been building up my hopes and expectations around him. I had never felt that way about anyone before, and even though our time together had been short, I was able to open up to him in a way that came so natural to me. Now, that only felt like a betrayal.”

In the wake of discovering Hugo’s involvement with the bakery’s repossession, Edith struggles with her feelings for him. She has built up an image in her head of her relationship with Hugo, just as she built a fantasy image of France when she first arrived. Now, she fears that reality has once again dashed her hopes and disappointed her expectations, once again demonstrating the conflict between dreams and reality.

“If my purpose in life was to look after my mother, then I didn’t have to explain to anyone why my own life was so empty.”

Edith finally acknowledges the way she used her mother’s illness and her role as a caregiver as a shield, an excuse not to actively make decisions about her own life. Losing this shield exacerbates the pain and upheaval of her mother’s death. Her inability to heal and her fear of pursuing her dreams remain interconnected across the novel.

“Every sip he took felt like he was on the cusp of some great inner discovery, but whatever it was, it eluded him. Clearly it had been a mistake to give her his copy of Proust. But it didn’t matter, he knew so many of the lines off by heart and couldn’t deny the uncanny similarity. When Proust tastes the tea in which he’d soaked the madeleine, a memory evades him and with every subsequent sip becomes more obscure.”

Hugo explicitly refers to Swann’s Way as he drinks the special hot chocolate for the second time, highlighting the significant symbolism of the book and the way his experience mirrors that of its narrator. This time the magic does not work as well, and the memory he is chasing eludes him until he at last confronts his brother’s death.

“‘All of these years I’ve been overcompensating—trying to be you! I haven’t been doing such a good job of it, to be honest.’ Hugo smiled. ‘But if I don’t stand up for what I believe in now, I may lose what little of myself I have left.’”

Echoing Pierre’s determination to do the right thing, Hugo makes a similar decision. Crucially, he can only face this decision after he comes to terms with his brother’s death and allows himself a chance to heal. Only then does he find the courage to do what he knows is right, even at the risk of his father’s disapproval and his loss of financial security.

“For the first time in my life, I felt as though I was doing what I was always meant to do. It felt natural and just…right. […] Something magical happened when I stopped putting pressure on myself to be someone—the person I thought people wanted me to be. I discovered an inner self, someone who’d been there all along, just waiting, for me to stop getting in my own way.”

Thanks to Hugo’s interference, Edith sings with Johnny’s band in front of an audience for the first time, highlighting the motif of creative expression. She immediately feels a renewed sense of identity and purpose, confirming that her desire to be a singer is not merely a silly dream, but a part of her identity and the thing she is meant to do with her life. This moment signifies her decision to choose her dream in defiance of her fears and insecurities.

“‘I understand,’ he said, nodding. ‘If we both keep toughing out our way through life, maybe we can avoid getting hurt.’”

Edith has harbored many dreams of what she thinks her life should look like, but each time, reality disappoints her, leading her to distrust the fairy-tale-like ease of her reconciliation with Hugo. He understands that the core of her distrust is a fear of being hurt again, as she was hurt by her mother’s death. He acknowledges that love is a risk but also argues that it is worth the risk.