A yearlong odyssey spanning three continents, a backyard wheat field, two exploding ovens, one herniated vertebra, a prolonged battle with food poisoning, a crisis of faith, and a thirteen-hundred-year-old monastery, in pursuit of a single goal — baking the perfect loaf of bread

Four years after introducing the phrase "a $64 tomato" to the lexicon with a critically-acclaimed best-seller about the joys, trials, humor, and humiliations of gardening, I've returned to lay waste to the kitchen as I embark on a year of baking bread in a determined attempt to reach a simple but deceptively elusive goal — create the perfect loaf of peasant bread. Growing and threshing my own wheat, builiding an oven from the clay in my garden, taking an ill-conceived trip to Paris to study baking, followed by an iller-conceived trip to North Africa in search of "honest" bread, I may lose my judgment, but never my enthusiasm or passion, in the entertaining and informative memoir, 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust.

From the links atop this page, you'll find information about my books, my speaking schedule, and what else is on my mind. Visit the feature-rich websites for 52 Loaves and The $64 Tomato for photographs and videos, recipes and reviews, reader feedback, and more.


What the critics say about William Alexander...

His writing is engaging, well paced and informative — The New York Times Book Review
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Engaging, funny, and down-to-earth — Entertainment Weekly
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His timing and his delivery are flawless. — The New York Times Magazine
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Consistently funny — The Washington Post