Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

A great historical novel focused on the production of silk in France around the time of the American Civil War. It’s a novella written in a lyrical style almost like a fable or even a fairy tale. You can read its 90 pages � 65 chapters - in a sitting.



The local silkworms catch a disease, so a young merchant is paid by the townsmen to leave his loving wife to go purchase larvae eggs from Japan. He travels across Europe and Siberia by train and horse and then by ship to Japan. Japan is still closed to foreigners, so this is a clandestine operation.

While he negotiates with the local warlord, he and the warlord’s mistress fall in love, a passion that continues without a word exchanged or a touch felt over the four years of his travels. In all this time they mange to exchange two letters but the French merchant pines for her most of the rest of his life. In later years, after he stops his travels, he discovers a shocking secret about the letters.



I liked the story and the historical background about the silk industry and the disease is accurate. Even Louis Pasteur makes an appearance attempting to corral the silkworm disease and that is true. It’s set in Lavilledieu, north of Marseilles.



The book is translated from the Italian and the author (b. 1958) has written several other novels. I read and enjoyed his book Emmaus. That’s a contemporary novel on a very different subject: four Italian boys discovering their sexuality.

Top photo of a silk workshop in Lyon, about the time of the story, from media.lyon-france.com
Lavilledieu from
The author from