Sourdough

By: Robin Sloan

Narrated by: Therese Plummer

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening.

Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her: feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it. Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she's providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria.

The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmers market, and a whole new world opens up. When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people exactly?

Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra s 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young author.

©2017 Robin Sloan (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

A story about our society, told through bread

Robin somehow manages to tell a captivating story entirely about bread. But also about the modern dreams,:making it big, working at a hip start up, discovery both scientific and about one self. It summarizes all the current problems with food industry, and all the varied solutions. The miracle is that all of this is told between the lines of a story about a young woman moving to a new state. If you liked penumbra you'll like this. It follows the same patterns, has the same key ingredients.
This book will make you want to go for a walk in san fransisco, bake bread, and make new friends.
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