Sourdough: A Novel
Written by Robin Sloan
Narrated by Therese Plummer
4/5
()
About this audiobook
From Robin Sloan, the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, comes Sourdough, "a perfect parable for our times" (San Francisco Magazine): a delicious and funny novel about an overworked and under-socialized software engineer discovering a calling and a community as a baker.
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Southern Living
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 quickly close up shop. 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 to the General Dexterity cafeteria every day. Then the company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market—and a whole new world opens up.
Includes bonus material that provides an audiobook-only glimpse at the evolving relationship between Lois and Slurry, the company upon whose dystopian meal replacements she and her engineer friends all subsist.
"Robin Sloan's second novel is an entertaining concoction of probiotic and high-tech ingredients...This is a funny, effervescent book told in the first person and given full range by Therese Plummer, whose youthful voice captures the matter-of-fact nature of Lois's unjaded, scientific temperament and the dizzying ups and downs of her spirits." — The Washington Post
"Therese Plummer, veteran narrator of more than 300 audiobooks, brings a delightfully loopy creativity to the delightfully loopy novel..." — Chicago Tribune
Editor's Note
Rises to the occasion…
A delicious satire that rises to the occasion, engulfing you in the sights and smells of the Bay Area bread scene. Software engineer Lois Clary’s whole life radically changes when she’s gifted a sourdough starter and learns how to bake. Another endearingly quirky story from the author of “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.”
Robin Sloan
Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco and the internet. He is the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough.
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Reviews for Sourdough
273 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a great story! An interesting and quirky plot half a hair of a lean toward fantasy. Witty sometimes downright humorous writing, very tongue in cheek at times. I found myself laughing out loud several times. The reading itself (audiobook) was spot on, the perfect voice for the plucky protagonist.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is delightful! And the reader is one of the best I have listened to; she brought the story alive. Would love to hear her read other stories.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Slow moving but a cool concept but it's probably just me. I didn't find the characters as easy to relate to. And it was a little difficult to really feel the main themes. I had to do a little research to get myself more into it before I could finish. Overall the writing is great.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enjoyable narrator and storyline, makes me want to bake!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uplifting and thought-provoking. It reads like a modern day fable.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a fun book!!! A story of robotics, sourdough, food, science, and culture. Not that kind of culture, the other culture. The original culture.
Oh, and armies! Battles between armies. And music! The music is key!
Just a tease, yes. But read it, and you'll understand. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Entertainingly written and read. I appreciate, as a microbiologist, that the author did their research. Amusing and warmly told.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Entertaining--and surely makes even the clumsiest want to start their baking career with sourdough.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Working as a software engineer who has a passion for baking, this hita so many right spots for me. Loved the story, how it developed, the question Rob asks about the traditional vs modern, and how food ubites people.