Sourdough

Lucas has inherited his mother's bakery, as well as her obsession for baking sourdough: a bread conceived by wild strains of yeast, and ripened until its flavor becomes both pungent and startling. Running the family business was a safe bet for Lucas, and a lucrative one at that; but when he finds that his soul has become infused with the same untamable character of the sourdough itself, he discovers that a safe bet can be the most dangerous thing a person can dare to make. The masterful way Benjamin Ludwig establishes and stays true to an analogy ultimately sells the integrity of the idea and creates a continuing sense of surprise in a subject that has been exhaustively treated and in two characters who are less than perfect, but who somehow are remarkable in their ordinariness and the genuine passion they find for each other and in their journey of self-discovery. The truth is that I didn't want to like this story, but Ludwig made me love it by remaining faithful to his characters and allowing them to carry the tale, while they develop and round out into credible and evocative, convincingly empathetic individuals who moved me with the genuineness of their hearts.Clay Reynolds, Series Judge