by Robin Sloan
First published 2017
Lois Clary spends her days writing code at General Dexterity, a robotics startup in San Francisco. Every night she orders dinner from the same neighborhood restaurant run by two brothers. When visa problems force the brothers to close their shop, they leave Lois with an unexpected inheritance: their sourdough starter. They tell her to feed it daily, play it music, and bake with it. Lois has never baked bread before, but she agrees to care for the living culture. Soon she's making loaves for herself and supplying bread to her company cafeteria. The chef encourages her to sell at farmers markets, but the established vendors reject her application. Then Lois discovers an underground market where food meets cutting-edge technology. She must decide whether to join this mysterious community and what it might cost her.
Genres: fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, food-and-drink
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: San Francisco
Period: 21st-century
259 pages · Hardcover · MCD Farrar, Straus and Giroux