To seasoned journalist and tireless traveller Susan Seligson, bread is nothing less than the currency of culture, a reflection of people's beliefs, daily lives, and blood memories. Whether it's a crusty baguette or a round of pita, or a flat of matzo, the author can't get enough of the stuff. In this volume, she stalks pillowy round loaves on their way to the communal bakeries of Morocco's ancient city of Fes, witnesses the ritualistic creation of what may be the world's most expensive pain au levain, and gapes at the coiled stainless steel innards of a mammoth Wonder Bread Factory.

In prose shaped with conviction and leavened with wit, she introduces us to the food engineer who toils in the laboratory of the US Army Bread Project and the Alabama octogenarian whose simple country biscuits draw devotees who happily drive an hour each way for breakfast. From the tents of Jordan's Wadi Mousa to the handmade matzo bakeries of Brooklyn to the granaries of southern Ireland, the author's adventures are braided with compelling historical detail and lively personal reflections about this most fundamental of foods.