Silk

Alessandro Baricco

France, 1861. A young silk breeder has to travel overland to distant Japan, out of bounds to foreigners, to smuggle out healthy silkworms, when an epidemic has wiped out the European hatcheries. He sets eyes upon his Japanese host's concubine and is at once in love, with never a word spoken.

104 pages, Paperback Published May 7, 1998 by Harvill Press (First published January 1, 1996)