Episode 281: Joan Elizabeth Bauer on her novel The Bicycle Messenger (June 1, 2026)

In this episode of The Catholic Bookworm, Kiki Latimer interviews Joan Elizabeth Bauer on her novel The Bicycle Messenger. (June 1, 2026)In the 1970s, when a distant cousin dies unexpectedly, Mary Ellen and Charles Hawley agree to take his seven-year-old son Steven into their home. Steven’s birth mother, a Polish immigrant, has schizophrenia and can’t assume custody. But in a last traumatic visit, she convinces her son that a mysterious presence called the bicycle messenger has followed him into his new life.Years later, Steven, a recovering alcoholic with a history of bipolar disorder, is working as a short-order cook. To Megan Helmsworth, a college student waiting tables, he is a sweet, doting boyfriend. But Steven becomes more and more preoccupied with his lost family of origin, and when a manic swing sends him on a quixotic journey to Poland, Megan seizes her chance to escape. In a well-meaning attempt to shelter her fragile son, Mary Ellen agrees to harbor a secret no mother should ever keep. Told through the eyes of the three women who love Steven best—Mary Ellen, Megan, and his adoptive sister Margaret—The Bicycle Messenger is a story of generational trauma that stretches from the last days of the Kraków ghetto in 1942 all the way to 2016. But it is also a story of unexpected grace.https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Messenger-Joan-Elizabeth-Bauer/dp/B0FGGLDMDQ/