The Gift of the Golden Thread

“We wake before sunrise, go to the westernmost point [of the island], and offer our prayer just as dawn breaks,” explains Zaneta Mazza to her young daughter in Bonnie Blaylock’s historical novel, The Water Women. “We greet the sea as it wakes, promising to protect and guard it and the treasure it offers. We harvest the gift of its golden thread, and we weave it into beauty to offer back in return.”

Over the course of more than 80 years, beginning in 1910, The Water Women tells the story of a fictional family of Jewish women dedicated to the historical harvesting of “byssus,” long keratin fibers produced by a particular type of mollusk found in abundance around the Italian island of Sardinia, where the story takes place.

After diving for the fibers, the women rinse and dry them in the sun and spin the iridescent strands into “sea silk” before weaving them into a fabric of exceptional beauty, prized for its rarity and quality. The cloth is most often used to create religious vestments and intricate tapestries, as well as simple bracelets given free of charge to expectant mothers as a blessing. To join this ancient fellowship of artisans, a woman must first be born into the community of water women families, endure many years of training, and take an oath of devotion to the byssus, promising to uphold the traditions of the harvest and never to profit financially from the work.

Blaylock imagines three generations of a family for whom this artistic endeavor is an unshakeable part of their heritage, which they trace back to Berenice Agrippa, a Jewish queen of the first century and the first maestra, or master teacher, of the water women. Allegra Renda feels the connection most strongly, seeing herself as “part of something bigger and more important that anything that might happen on their tiny island. A participant in creation, making something beautiful from what most people considered ordinary.”

Blaylock brings the island of Sardinia to life with her vivid descriptions of its traditional music, dress, food, and drink, as well as the glorious Mediterranean flora and fauna, especially the ocean that is so loved and honored by the water women. Over time, though, they face challenges to the continuation of their craft. As Allegra works tirelessly to train her daughter Zaneta, who trains her own daughter Mira, the women must withstand the everyday pains of life — illness, depression, infertility, the loss of loved ones — as well as the unexpected devastation wrought by global conflict when the horrors of the second World War are brought to the shores of Sardinia. The violent effects of the war on Allegra and Zaneta echo throughout their Jewish family and community for decades, and it falls to Mira to chart a different course for herself and her daughter Daniella.

Readers will enjoy following the lives of these exceptional women as they grow, marry, and raise families of their own. Despite the obstacles they face in a rapidly changing world, they struggle to preserve the sacred traditions handed down to them by their ancestors:

“We’re water women,” said Allegra, as if that settled it. Her papa was a pescatore, and her brothers would follow. Just as the sheep herders knew their trade and the bakers theirs, families inherited the land or business and learned the skills, the young generation placing their feet in the treads of their fathers and mothers.

This expectation becomes increasingly difficult as the years pass, yet the women portrayed in this fascinating family saga strive mightily to preserve the byssus and their devotion to it, in ways both ancient and modern.