Sourdough

‘Filled with crisp humor and weird but endearing characters… [A] delight, perfect for those who like a little magic with their meals.’ * Booklist starred review *
‘Sourdough is the story we all secretly dream about.’ * Washington Post *
‘A beautiful, small, sweet, quiet book. It knows as much about the strange extremes of food as Mr Penumbra did about the dark latitudes of the book community.’ * National Public Radio *
‘Delightful… It’s equal measures techie and foodie fodder, a perfect parable for our times.’ * San Francisco Magazine *
‘As he did in Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan will have readers looking for magic in the mundane.’ – Nora Horvath, Real Simple
‘How many novels can boast an obstreperous sourdough starter as a key character? A delightful and heartfelt read.’ * Library Journal *
‘A wild, geeky, flour-dusted ride through the oddball food and techie communities of San Francisco…A winning story that―like its namesake bread—carries a satisfying tang.’ * Shelf Awareness *
‘Sloan’s comic but smart tone never flags, and Lois is an easy hero to root for.’ * Kirkus Reviews *
‘Through narrative and email correspondence, Sloan captures contemporary work environments, current reality, and future trends…[Sourdough] offers much to savor.’ * Publishers Weekly *
‘In his novel Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Sloan unraveled a mystery about a web designer who takes a job in a peculiar all-night Bay Area book shop. New technology clashed, then melded, with classic history. Sourdough promises a similar sort of tech and analog mashup, in this case involving the food industry: a software engineer learns to bake bread and uncovers a secret underground market. We’re already hungry for it.’ * The Miami Herald, Fall Books Preview *
‘[Sourdough] plunges through so much terrain: microbial nations, assimilation and tradition, embodied consciousness and the crisis of the tech industry, all without losing the light, sweet, ironic Sloanian voice familiar from Mr Penumbra’s, a plot that makes the book a page-turner and a laugh-out-louder, with sweetness and romance and tartness and irony in perfect balance. What a great book, seriously.’ * BoingBoing *
‘Sloan’s charming storytelling, a mix of magical realism, and a dash of fabulism make for a fun read. It’s dessert.’ * Dallas News *
‘This novel does a superb job of capturing what life is like—lonely, exhausting, at times quite strange—working at a tech start-up in San Francisco…Utterly charming.’ * Whimn *
‘As with his first, bestselling novel, Robin Sloan had a great deal of fun. It comes through in his slightly delighted tone, his lilt and the way he laughs at himself…This relishing of language—and Sloan’s awareness of the reader—forms a helpful lens, allowing us to “hear” the interior Lois, the one who deserves a life much richer than robots and Tetra Paks of slurry.’ * NZ Listener *
‘This is no “old school craft beats new technology” redemptive tale…The author pokes fun at a food industry that takes itself seriously, and throws in a romance largely conducted online.’ * North & South *
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‘Genius-level observant, wonderfully written and absolutely brilliant.’

Robin Sloan is the author of Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. He splits his time between San Francisco and the internet.

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