Reading matters

'Silk' by Alessandro Baricco

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 104  pages; 1997. (Translated from the Italian by Guido Waldman)

This powerful and erotic tale reveals how one's man desire threatens to ruin his life.

It is 1861 and Hervé Joncour is a silk breeder from France who is happily married to the beautiful Helene. Compelled to travel illegally to Japan alone in search of disease-free silkworms, Hervé comes across a "girl who does not have oriental eyes" and, despite not exchanging one word with her, falls deeply in love.

'Without Blood' by Alessandro Baricco

Fiction - paperback; Canongate Books; 87  pages; 2005. (Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein.)

When this book popped through my letter box earlier this week (a spontaneous purchase from Amazon.co.uk - I know, you shouldn't let me loose on the internet) I was amazed at how anorexic it looked: 87 short pages filled with relatively large type. I read the book cover to cover in less than an hour and now, forced to try and shape my thoughts about it into some semblance of a review, I feel myself itching to read it again.