Sourdough, Robin Sloan
Sourdough, Robin Sloan
9 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Sourdough
A Novel

Author: Robin Sloan

Narrator: Thérèse Plummer

Unabridged: 6 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/05/2017


Synopsis

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

About Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco Bay Are and the San Joaquin Valley of California. He is the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Matthew on November 29, 2017

This book was great! It is fun and quirky. I think you can read it either to find purpose and meaning, or just for a nice, quick read. I am definitely a Robin Sloan fan. I enjoyed Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore as well so I was looking forward to this one. While his stuff can be a bit out there (it......more

Goodreads review by Regan on June 09, 2023

Very charming......more

Goodreads review by karen on June 29, 2018

oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for best fiction! what will happen? this is the same kind of breezy good fun as the author’s debut, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, but while that one was about computer-savvy booknerds having secret-society-based adventures in san francisco, this one is a......more

Goodreads review by Heather on January 20, 2018

I adored the first half of this book but the second half was just....so, so odd.......more


Quotes

2018 Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration for Adult Listeners

"Narrator Therese Plummer's lively performance highlights Lois's cautious curiosity and delight of discovery
as she transforms from non-cooking AI geek to sought-after baker. This quirky story is well served by Plummer's enthusiasm..." -AudioFile


Awards

  • Amazon.com Best Books of the Year
  • Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year
  • NPR Best Book of the Year
  • Northern California Book Award
  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year