Thubron makes the Silk Road come alive with both his eye for contemporary detail and his knowledge of its history. The paradoxes of the modern world are evident throughout--the embrace of Western popular culture and the weariness with Western values, for example. Thubron goes the local route and suffers most of the same inconveniences and indignities as the locals and provides insight into the response to SARS and the reaction to recent conflicts in the region. I knocked off a star for a collection of minor reasons: The maps are of limited use; there is an elliptical quality to several parts of the book and it appears that content was deleted (e.g., Tubron has letters for two friends who are never heard of again after mention of the letters); the purpose of the trip seems to get lost and the ending is a bit abrupt; and a bibliography would have been helpful. Even so, this is a book that beautifully captures details about people, places, and time.