HAVING rejected his father's plans of a military career for him, Herve Joncour, a young Frenchman, chooses a more unusual life - he buys and sells silk worms. He is not a typical merchant, as his buying brings him far from home and his business trips become increasingly longer as a series of epidemics threatens the European silkworm.

The year is 1861 and, as the author mentions in passing, "Flaubert was writing Salammbb, electric light remained hypothetical, and Abraham Lincoln, beyond the Ocean, was awaiting a war of which he was not to see the finish."

Baricco's elegant historical novella combines the grace of a 19th century narrative with the atmosphere of a medieval romance epic. First published in Italian last year, it has already been - or is about to be - translated into 16 languages, including Japanese, and appears destined to become a cult sensation comparable to Peter Suskind's Perfume (1986).

It is a remarkably disciplined performance. It is written in terse, episodic chapters and the beauty of the prose contrasts with the non committal narrative tone. No judgments are offered. Joncour is married to a woman of whom we are initially told little, aside from her possessing a lovely voice and the fact that the couple have no children.

The epidemics continue to rage, and Joncour travels to Syria and Egypt in search of the precious eggs: "he would travel 1,600 miles by sea and 800 miles overland. He would choose the eggs, negotiate the price, make his purchase. Then he would turn round, travel 800 miles overland and 1,600 miles by sea and return... usually the first Sunday in April, usually in time for High Mass.

After spending two weeks preparing the eggs for sale, his year's work is done. His life appears almost too regimented and, of course, it is difficult to accept that such long journeys can appear to pass so uneventfully, particularly in the 19th century.

Joncour soon becomes sufficiently comfortable for a man "entirely indifferent" to true wealth. "Besides, he was one of those men who like to be observers at their own lives, any ambition actually to participate in them being considered inappropriate." All of which helps to explain Joncour's lack of excitement and tendency to regard his adventures as dull routine; the only urgency appears to be to get home before the eggs hatch.

Even Africa and India fall to the epidemic, leaving Joncour's mentor, Baldabiou - the man who had originally introduced silk to the area and recruited the young man to the profession - to exclaim, "nearly the whole world." But one supply source "right at the end of the world" is still possible: Japan.

This island made up of islands is presented as an alien, self contained, magic kingdom. Baldabiou recalls a story he once heard and has never forgotten. "It was said that the island produced the finest silk in the world" and, after 1,000 years, had arrived "at a state of mystical perfection". The older man recalls holding a veil woven from Japanese silk thread, "it was like grasping in your fingers ... nothing."

But there is a serious catch; the Japanese sell their silk, but not the eggs. Attempting to export any is a criminal offence. Joncour, however, calmly sets off on a dangerous quest for Japan.

The journey is an epic which involves travelling 2,000 kilometres of Russian steppe on horseback, crossing the Urals, enteflng Siberia, eventually arriving at the Chinese border and on to the west coast of Japan, passing through various provinces and, finally, arriving at a town. There he waits two days before meeting a man dressed in black who blindfolds him and brings him to a village. Having bought the forbidden eggs he is ready to return, but is stopped.

Joncour comes face to face with the elusive man who is master of the silk wealth. Far more important than even this, though, is the Frenchman's encounter with the silk trader's young mistress. Returning with his forbidden cargo he becomes extremely wealthy, yet has already embarked on a very different quest.

While carefully maintaining his calm, detached tone, Baricco skillfully transforms this gentle story into a tale of tense, erotic longing. A series of cryptic love notes draws the quiet silk merchant to the edge of an obsessive passion. Several return trips to Japan ensure he is a changed man. The passion, however, comes from an unlikely source.

In ways a melancholic morality play, Silk no doubt is intended as a exotic fable, leading the reader to an understanding of the fact that the greatest journeys are made in the emotions. As delicate and as tough as a piece of silk, this haunting, old world romance seduces and saddens. {CORRECTION} 97012300213