Rachelle is liv­ing a gold­en life. She and her fam­i­ly live in Fès, Moroc­co in the 1920s, sur­round­ed by friends, fam­i­ly, and a close-knit com­mu­ni­ty. They are part of a small, close-knit Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, and they can prac­tice their reli­gion in com­fort while main­tain­ing warm rela­tion­ships with Mus­lim friends and associates. 

It’s also a life full of beau­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty. Rachelle’s par­ents and most of the oth­er adults around her are arti­sans, mak­ing gold jew­el­ry or embroi­der­ing fab­rics with gold­en thread. The chil­dren learn much about hand­made craft­ing by watch­ing them at work. One of the most inter­est­ing work­shops Rachelle observes is the one that makes tal­is­mans; the com­mu­ni­ty believes that these tal­is­mans will guard them against evil. The chil­dren lis­ten to the tales of their sto­ried his­to­ry when their fore­bears lived rich and col­or­ful lives in Tole­do, Spain before the Span­ish Inqui­si­tion when the Jews were forcibly expelled from Spain and Portugal.

The adults are con­cerned about the talk of a spe­cial machine that will take over the work of many of the artists and arti­sans and will severe­ly impact their liveli­hoods and lifestyle. They see the immi­nent arrival of this machine as that of a ​“mon­ster” who will prey on their lives. In the mean­time, dai­ly life is hap­py — even though it feels vague­ly threat­en­ing that a pho­tog­ra­ph­er has been employed to record the hand­crafts made lov­ing­ly by the tal­ent­ed com­mu­ni­ty. While Rachelle and her friends enjoy pos­ing for the pho­tog­ra­ph­er and show­ing off their mag­nif­i­cent wares, they sus­pect that this devel­op­ment does not bode well for their future.

One day, the dread­ed machine arrives and the mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty know that their way of life is severe­ly threat­ened. The arti­sans join togeth­er and go on strike to pro­tect them­selves against the loom­ing threat. Joint­ly, they write a let­ter to the Sul­tan ask­ing him to return the machine to Europe from whence it came. To the great joy of all and amidst fes­tive cel­e­bra­tion they receive a pos­i­tive response to their let­ter but their reprieve does not last for­ev­er and a new machine sub­se­quent­ly arrives. It seems that progress can­not be stopped; the mod­ern age is encroach­ing on their peace­ful, pro­duc­tive exis­tence. Even with the dras­tic changes, com­mu­ni­ty feel­ing per­sists and trea­sured mem­o­ries linger on. As Rachelle per­fect­ly sums it up, they will nev­er for­get ​“the gold­en threads that unite us.”

The book is illus­trat­ed and designed in a way that bol­sters and empha­sizes the lives which are so touch­ing­ly depict­ed. A thread of gold fol­lows the read­er from page to page, unit­ing the ideas, per­son­al­i­ties, and expe­ri­ences which sym­bol­ize the world of the Fès inhab­i­tants. The pic­tures lov­ing­ly estab­lish both the time and the place. Much of the book is appro­pri­ate­ly illus­trat­ed in gold and the text is accom­pa­nied by both illus­trat­ed and ver­bal ​“glos­saries” fur­ther defin­ing, explain­ing, and enhanc­ing the con­cepts described in the text itself. The book also includes beau­ti­ful­ly col­ored maps, which help make the his­to­ry eas­i­ly under­stood by young read­ers. The prose is clear but evoca­tive­and reflects the rich tapes­try that is the Fès com­mu­ni­ty. A fas­ci­nat­ing author’s note is append­ed detail­ing Ariel­la Aïsha Azoulay’s own fam­i­ly’s expe­ri­ences in this cap­ti­vat­ing Jew­ish and Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty as well as more about its history.

This is an unusu­al book that will remain in the hearts and minds of those who read it.