Product Description

The year is 1861. Hervé Joncour is a French merchant of silkworms, who combs the known world for their gemlike eggs. Then circumstances compel him to travel farther, beyond the edge of the known, to a country legendary for the quality of its silk and its hostility to foreigners: Japan.

There Joncour meets a woman. They do not touch; they do not even speak. And he cannot read the note she sends him until he has returned to his own country. But in the moment he does, Joncour is possessed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36696 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-28
• Released on: 2007-08-28
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .1 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Library Journal
Baricco, the author of two prize-winning novels, spins an enchanting novella as delicate as the silk that fills the story. In the 1860s, Herve Joncour makes four difficult journeys from France to Japan to obtain eggs for breeding silkworms. Japan is closed to the world, but he manages to negotiate with a local baron to obtain the eggs. While there, he notices a young woman who does not have oriental eyes. Though they never address each other, they conduct a secret affair. The story, told exquisitely and very well translated, conveys the richness, delicacy, and mystery of the book's sought-after fabric. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.?Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“Silk has the brilliant colors . . . and the enchantment of a miniature. . . . Vividly erotic.” --Newsday

“A riveting, lyrical love story, an accomplished historical fiction, a compact, condensed . . . epic about human hearts in crisis.” --Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered

“A book with language to savor. . . . It seems as guileless as a folk tale but propels a reader with real force.” --Denver Post

“A heart-breaking love story. . . A stylistic tour de force [and] a literary gem of bewitching power.” --The Sunday Times

Ingram
In 1860, France's silk trade is threatened by an epidemic. To obtain uncontaminated silk worm eggs, a young man goes on a clandestine journey to Japan--where he falls in love with a lovely, non-Oriental concubine. This critically acclaimed narrative, seamless as a piece of fine silk, plays on the imagination, haunting as a strain of beautiful music.