Issue 3: Fugitive Pieces + Feta-Stuffed Flatbreads with Za'atar
A story that begins with hiding, and hidden feta in pillowy dough.
Welcome to Good Book/Good Bread! Every two weeks, I recommend a book I love, and bake a delicious bread that fits with an aspect of the story. This week: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels and feta-stuffed Za’atar flatbreads. Haven’t subscribed yet? Sign up here!
Part 1: Good Book
In a nutshell
This week’s book is a throwback, 1996’s Fugitive Pieces by Canadian poet and novelist Anne Michaels. Beginning in World War II, this novel follows the life of a young Polish boy, Jakob, who narrowly escapes the Nazis, ending up on the run without his family. While travelling by night through a dense wetland, he encounters a Greek archeologist named Athos doing fieldwork, a meeting that reroutes the course of his life. The story takes place in Poland, Greece, and Canada, with the latter half of Fugitive Pieces incorporating a second main character, a man much younger than Jakob who also had his life transformed by World War II. Fugitive Pieces is a beautiful exploration of memory, grief, and language, and the role they play in shaping identity.
Three things I liked about Fugitive Pieces
Anne Michaels’ lyrical writing
Anne Michaels is an award-winning poet, as well as a fiction writer. Her poetry background comes through acutely in Fugitive Pieces. Many times reading the book, I’d finish a passage and immediately read it again, wanting to take it in a second time. This graceful writing style makes the book such a pleasure to read, whether she is describing the ancient wood and stone Athos works on, Jakob’s longing for his family, or the streets of 1940’s Toronto.
The reader is never allowed to become complacent
Every time I got comfortable with a setting or plot point in this book, it then shifted in a way I wouldn’t have been able to predict. Michaels is elegant in her narrative authority; after the first few plot developments, you learn to trust her and go with the story. There is nothing cliched or idle about the trajectory Fugitive Pieces takes the reader on.
It cuts right to the human heart at the centre of tragedy
I’ve always been drawn to books that distill conflict and tragedy down to a single person’s experience. As with any good writing that makes the personal experience universal, it allows you to become a little bit closer to putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Fugitive Pieces, through Jakob’s experience as a boy torn from his family and losing his roots, offers a focused and graceful look at the individual effects of war and genocide.
Notable passage:
“The shadow past is shaped by everything that never happened. Invisible, it melts the present like rain through karst. A biography of longing. It steers us like magnetism, a spirit torque. This is how one becomes undone by smell, a word, a place, the photo of a mountain of shoes. By love that closes its mouth before calling a name.”
Part 2: Good Bread
Feta-stuffed flatbreads with Za’atar
Why this bread for this book?
The first few pages of Fugitive Pieces ignite the plot with Jakob hiding. Hiding is an important undercurrent of the first quarter of the book, something that drives the story forward by allowing Jakob to have a future.
I chose these flatbreads to represent the idea of hiding and being tucked away. These flatbreads have feta sprinkled over the dough rounds, and then they are folded over themselves and rolled out again, sealing the feta within the dough before baking.
Recipe
This recipe is from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook Dessert Person, and you can watch a video of her making it here. The dough for these flatbreads includes a small amount of mashed potato, which makes them really pillowy and soft. I baked mine in a cast iron pan where they puffed up nicely, and the tangy feta inside contrasts perfectly with the salty, tart Za’atar oil spread on top.
Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mixture that you can find at a lot of grocery stores. If you can’t, you can make your own by mixing together sumac, thyme, oregano, salt, sesame seeds, and cumin seeds. In Claire’s recipe video linked above, she also has a delicious-looking eggplant dip that I haven’t made but want to! These freeze really well.
Works well with:
Hummus and olives
Scrambled eggs and hot sauce
Chopped parsley, lemon, and more feta crumbled on top
Hannah! This was lovely to find in my inbox this morning. You've inspired me to reread Fugitive Pieces!!