Product Description
The year is 1861. HervÃ© 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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 92 reviews)

A love-poem. by Jan Dierckx (Belgium, Turnhout)

5 Stars
September 29, 2009
Around 1860 there is an epidemic disease among the silkworm eggs in France. Hervé Joncour organizes - in the course of four years - four expeditions to japan to buy healthy silkworm eggs. Between France and Japan there begins a confrontation between two different civilizations, between two worlds totally apart from each other. Misunderstandings occur and risk to jeopardize the negotiations. But beneath the surface a weird and peculiar love story begins between Hervé Joncour and the mistress of the Japanese negotiator. They are not able to touch or speak to each-other. The woman sends mysterious notes to the Frenchman and there is only one woman in the world who is able to translate them... Long and dangerous voyages, the soft sound of a voice, the sacralization of a magnificent and sensual silk tissue, all these things add to the mysterious atmosphere of Japan in the 19th century. But above all "Silk" is a poem about a fragile and impossible love-affair.

Good things come in small packages by jeff altman (Los Angeles, CA)

5 Stars
June 11, 2009
This is a wonderfully written tale. The words are sparse, but the emotion conveyed is deep. It can be devoured in one sitting, or savored in small bites. My guess is that I, and others, will want to read it more than once.

Delicate...but certainly not a masterpiece. by Schmadrian

3 Stars
June 03, 2009
(At least not in English, anyway.) Although it did have its moments, I felt a lot of the time that 'Silk' read like an exercise. Again, maybe in the Italian, it doesn't come across as being contrived, pretentious...or studied. Perhaps in a fully-formed effort...a novel, or even novella...it would work for me. Because even though I salute the attempt, the lovely execution of 'less is more', I couldn't help but think 'Nice trick.' And that's not what you want going through your head when you're reading emotion-based material. Let me add this final point: I'm a 'hopeFUL romantic', so it's not like I'm not wired properly. It just didn't work for me.

A magic, delicate book spoiled by cheesy cover design by Oleans

4 Stars
October 01, 2008
I first read this book in Italian, and was mesmerized by the delicacy of its language. The words themselves were pure silk... This English translation is not bad, but somehow lacks the magic... What is the worst though is the horrible cheap-melodrama-style cover design! It completely destroys the aura of Baricco's original!

Poetic and sensual by Farah Yousif (Kuwait)

5 Stars
July 12, 2008
`Silk' by Alessandro Baricco is a poetic, sensual novel set in 1862, France. The book is moderately short, but the quality of the writing transports you with the descriptions of beauty and eroticism. This is the tale of Hervé Joncour, a silkworm merchant who is married to the beautiful Hélène Joncour. Hervé is convinced by Baldabiou, a businessman, to travel in search of silkworm eggs in order to save the silk-making business. During his travel to Japan, he becomes infatuated with a Japanese concubine. When he returns home to France, he cannot forget the Japanese beauty and continues to obsessively long for her.

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