Why Join?

  • Add New Books

  • Write a Review

  • Backpack Reading Lists

  • Monthly Newsletter

Join Now

Silk

Silk

Author(s): Alessandro Baricco

Location(s): France, Japan

Genre(s): Novella

Era(s): 1861

Location

Content

The year is 1861. Herve 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.

Review this Book

To review this book, please

Log in

Book Reviews

Lead Review

“Silk is the perfect pick-up book… A book of startling images and ideas.” Observer

Read review