Sourdough

Sourdough: A Novel
Robin Sloan
MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First Edition edition (September 5, 2017), 272 pages
Amazon hardcover $15.08, Kindle edition $13.99

I actually read a physical hardcover. Terry bought this book and I read it when she finished it.

Author Robin Sloan understands high tech culture. His novel Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore involved Silicon Valley and the Google campus. Sourdough centers around San Francisco’s Silicon Gulch (though he doesn’t use the term) and the high tech world there.

Lois is a recent college grad recruited by a fictional San Francisco robotics company. Her long work hours prompt her to order some rather tasty delivery dinners from a service owned by a pair of brothers who not-so-legally set up a commercial kitchen in their apartment. When authorities start following up on their not-so-legal immigration status the brothers leave the country, but make a gift of their sourdough starter, a heritage of their culture, to Lois.

Lois starts baking sourdough bread and it eventually becomes her full-time work. Things get out of hand, however. I’ll leave it at that, because if you enjoy either bread making or high tech culture you’ll want to read this book.