Product Description

When an epidemic threatens to destroy the silk trade in France, Herve Joncour leaves his small town and travels to Japan to obtain eggs for a fresh breeding of silk worms. There he falls in love with another man's concubine, and during subsequent visits their secret and silent affair develops.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1402284 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05
• Original language: Italian
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 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.

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.

From the Back Cover
"A heart-breaking love story." --The Sunday Times (London)

"A riveting, lyrical love story, an accomplished historical fiction, a compact, condensed little epic about human hearts in crisis." --Allan Cheuse, All Things Considered (NPR)

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

"Silk has the brilliant colors, the compressed life and the enchantment of a miniature. . . . Vividly erotic." --Newsday