Silk: A World History

Prasad (Like a Virgin: How Science Is Redesigning the Rules of Sex) unfurls the history of a coveted textile, particularly emphasizing how scientists like her have long studied Bombyx mori, or the domestic silk moth, as well as wild silk-producing species globally. Though she focuses more intently on early naturalists’ and modern geneticists’ research into silk production and scientific applications than on the cultural and trade significance of silk clothing, listeners who appreciated Sofi Thanhauser’s Worn and Victoria Finlay’s Fabric may deepen that appreciation with this close examination of one rare and versatile fiber. Audiobook narrator Hannah Curtis lends crisp, enunciated accessibility to a text with three distinct parts (i.e., moths, other silk-producing animals, the future of silk) and quick narrative shifts within those parts. Where readers of the printed text gain an index and photo section, listeners hear warmth as Curtis narrates the author’s youthful experiment to raise her own Bombyx mori eggs and, equally as affecting, her curiosity and optimism while conducting current experiments with implications for human and planetary health.