Gentlement of the Road

A rollicking saga set a thousand years ago along the ancient Silk Road, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

Gentlemen of the Road is set in the Kingdom of Arran, in the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, A.D. 950. It tells the tale of two wandering adventurers and unlikely soul mates, variously plying their trades as swords for hire, horse thieves, and flimflam artists–until fortune entangles them in the myriad schemes and battles following a bloody coup in the medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars. Hired as escorts for a fugitive prince, they quickly find themselves half-willing generals in a mad rebellion, struggling to restore the prince’s family to the throne. As their increasingly outrageous exploits unfold, they encounter a wondrous elephant, wily Rhandanite tradesman, whores, thieves, soldiers, an emperor, and the truth about their young royal charge, whose slender frame conceals a startling secret and a warrior’s heart.

Michael Chabon is the author of the novels The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. His next novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, will be published by Harper Collins in May of 2007. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, a #1 bestselling young adult novel, Summerland, and has written a number of screenplays and teleplays. He writes a regular column for Details magazine. Chabon lives in the San Francisco Bay area.


From the Hardcover edition.