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A review by junibjones
True Loaf by Austen Johnson
4.0
Of all the stories I’ve read and listened to this year, L. Austen Johnson’s True Loaf is truly unique. A short tale based on Baltic folklore, True Loaf follows a young woman named Riley working at a bakery. She’s approached by a mysterious customer asking for tea and bread made with a very specific ingredient and vows to pay her handsomely. On Riley’s journey into the forest, she gets lost before meeting another stranger who asks for some of whatever she makes with it.
This stranger in the woods tells her how to get the yarrow, but she finds both white and yellow. She takes both, hoping that she can make both loaves look similar enough. When the strangers both arrive at the bakery she realizes they are twins and decides to give the first man the loaf made with the yellow yarrow, transforming him into something malevolent. Only when she gives the white yarrow bread to the other brother does he defeat his brother, claiming a bond with Riley that places her under his protection. He gives her only his name, Aiden, and tells her of his world yet he names no other names.
I don’t know much about Baltic folklore. It’s an area of folklore that I haven’t much explored, but I’m interested after reading True Loaf. I know of a concept where the fae do not offer their true names, or any at all, because names have power. However, that’s as far as my knowledge on the subject extends and I’m unaware of where that knowledge might’ve come from. I want to find the original tale so I can understand the material on which this story is based. As of now, I enjoyed this quick little jaunt, but I can’t help feel like I’m missing something.
This stranger in the woods tells her how to get the yarrow, but she finds both white and yellow. She takes both, hoping that she can make both loaves look similar enough. When the strangers both arrive at the bakery she realizes they are twins and decides to give the first man the loaf made with the yellow yarrow, transforming him into something malevolent. Only when she gives the white yarrow bread to the other brother does he defeat his brother, claiming a bond with Riley that places her under his protection. He gives her only his name, Aiden, and tells her of his world yet he names no other names.
I don’t know much about Baltic folklore. It’s an area of folklore that I haven’t much explored, but I’m interested after reading True Loaf. I know of a concept where the fae do not offer their true names, or any at all, because names have power. However, that’s as far as my knowledge on the subject extends and I’m unaware of where that knowledge might’ve come from. I want to find the original tale so I can understand the material on which this story is based. As of now, I enjoyed this quick little jaunt, but I can’t help feel like I’m missing something.