Immediately after finishing Ocean Sea, I wanted to lose myself in Baricco’s lyrical prose again. On first glance, I didn’t think much of Silk, a book about the trade of silkworms. Hardly seemed like something I would obsess over. I was one hundred percent wrong.
(Note to self: probably stop pre-judging books?)

Silk is THE best novella I have ever read. It’s under a hundred pages, yet fantastically describes two very lively and changing worlds- France and Japan, a crazy love story, and incredible characters. Baricco’s writing is beyond spectacular, perfectly succinct and thoroughly magical. It’s at once a tragic yet heart-warming love story, a historical account, a travel book, a philosophical reading, an inspection of the westernisation of Japan….. and yet it’s none of these things fully.
Baricco lightly treads over so many ideas, beautifully letting them linger without suffocating the reader. I read it in one sitting, then spent the whole night and the following day trying to fully absorbing it.

Can't recommend it enough.