This is a kind of literary comfort food, a book without any real conflict or tension, only a tiny bit of mystery, but lots of heart. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young author. Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan's Mr. But then an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer's market, and a whole new world opens up. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she's providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. She must keep it alive, they tell her - feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. 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.

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017, 262 pages

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