The Storyteller

Ania resumes telling her story. She is in the village market trying to sell the last of her father’s baguettes to Damian, the captain of the village guard, who is handsome but “rotten to the core” (49). Damian forces a kiss on Ania and advises her to marry him so she will never have to worry about her father’s debt again. Ania breaks free and runs toward home. On the way, she passes a newcomer to town, a young man leading his “feebleminded” teenaged brother on a leash. Ania is excited to tell her father about this stranger, but as she approaches the cottage she finds her father’s brutalized body lying in a nearby stream.

In the present-day narrative, Sage stares at Josef’s photograph and tries to reconcile the laughing Nazi with the kindly old man she knows. She does not want to kill him, but she neither confirms nor denies his request before excusing herself back to the bakery, where a large crowd has gathered to see the Jesus loaf. Overwhelmed, Sage leaves and parks near Adam’s funeral home, wondering if Josef has singled her out for his confession because he can see that she too carries a guilty conscience.