With the entrepreneurial culture of San Francisco as a backdrop, Robin Sloan's second novel, Sourdough: or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market, tells the story of Lois Clary, a young woman whose existence is transformed by (believe it or not) bread. Two immigrant brothers cook up a special type of sourdough that proves irresistible to their restaurant's patrons, including Lois. When the brothers are deported, they leave her their sourdough starter, and Lois begins baking in earnest. A colleague at the robotics factory where Lois works suggests that she sell the bread at a farmers market, and—one thing leading to another—she is soon invited to participate in Marrow Fair, a clandestine market involved in food experimentation. Lois makes for a witty, intelligent commentator in this skillfully constructed novel. Sloan, author of the bestselling Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, reinforces his reputation as a writer to watch with this rewarding read.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

 

In this follow-up to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist in first fiction with best-book claims to fame, San Francisco software engineer Lois Clary is bequeathed a sourdough starter by her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurateurs when they leave town fast owing to visa problems. Soon she's baking up a storm and imagining her own market blending food and technology.

In the buoyant, touch-of-magic prose that characterized his Alex Award-winning debut, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Sloan introduces us to Lois Clary, a software engineer at an ambitious, San Francisco-based robotics company, whose life gets fantastically redirected by a sourdough starter. Lois is bequeathed the starter by Beoreg and Chaiman, proprietors of Clement Street Soup and Sourdough, who light up her 'round-the-clock work schedule with their wonderful food until they're forced to leave town fast owing to visa problems. (The brothers belong to the fabled Mazg community, a bit of whimsy that adds to the novel's charm.) Soon, Lois is planning her life around baking bread, building the perfect oven and eventually getting invited to join a mysterious new food emporium that aims to redefine how we eat. She even works out a deal to buy a robot arm from her company to help make her in-demand bread, which is significant; Lois isn't rebelling against technology but moving forward in her own way. In her quest, she gets help from a club of women all named Lois and enticingly still-in-touch Beoreg. VERDICT How many novels can boast an obstreperous sourdough starter as a key character? A delightful and heartfelt read. [See Prepub Alert, 3/3/17.]—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

San Francisco's technology and food cultures collide and collude in Sloan's latest novel, following Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Robotics programmer Lois Clary subsists on an unappetizing diet that includes frequent servings of Tetra Pak–wrapped nutritional gel until she discovers the delicious, restorative comfort food sold at Clement Street Soup and Sourdough, a makeshift take-out enterprise operated by two immigrant brothers. Visa issues force the brothers to leave the country, but before they go they give Lois a crock of sourdough starter along with a CD of the music of their people, the mysterious Mazg. Lois's first attempt at baking bread produces an imperfect loaf with cracks in the crust that form the lines of a human face. Improving with practice, she earns a coveted place at Marrow Fair—an innovative farmer's market offering Chernobyl honey, microbiotic lembas, and algorithmically optimized bagels—but there's one condition. Marrow Fair's manager wants "robot bread." Lois must figure out how to program a robotic arm to perform kitchen tasks that require a delicate touch. Lois also faces another, more worrisome problem: the starter has become temperamental and demanding: underfed it looks depressed; overfed it spreads, grows tendrils, and forms faces with disturbing expressions. Through narrative and email correspondence, Sloan captures contemporary work environments, current reality, and future trends. It's a busy novel, crammed with some excellent bits (how robotics work, how farmers markets work) and some bits that are just creative hyperactivity (like the biogeneration of lembas). The book offers much to savor, but like the starter it proves rich and buoyant at first, then overreaches. (Sept.)

Like Sloan's debut, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, this novel twists new and old worlds together. General Dexterity, a robotics company in San Francisco, burns out its bright young employees on 12-hour shifts and feeds them a gray sludge called Slurry. Enter Lois Clary, the company's new software engineer, fresh from Michigan, whose social life is at an all-time low. Alone each night, she cheers up when Beo, the takeout guy, delivers delicious, spicy soup from Clement Street Soup and Sourdough. He's nicknamed her "number one customer!" for her loyalty. But Beo and his brother, the cook, are in a hurry to leave the country, and one evening they deliver more than her order—they give her the family's starter for their sourdough bread and urge her to carry on their tradition. Lois enters the competitive foodie world of hip San Francisco with a recipe from long ago and the means to change her life. She also gets some help from the women of the Lois Club, who offer comic relief and some sage advice. Laced with clever pop culture references, this humorous, richly plotted novel features unforgettable characters and imparts an important lesson: you can't succeed in the modern world without respecting the old one. VERDICT Highly recommended for all YA collections.—Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY