This is a review of the 1st edition. It is a pity the author did not have endnotes and a bibliography to support the interesting lives of the individuals she had narrated in this book.
That said, this is a vivid book on lives along the eastern part of the Silk road from Samarkand to Changan, the ancient name for Xian. We followed a trader who journeyed from Samarkand to Changan to trade. We also learned the hard life of a Tibetan soldier on duty in a frontier town. We also followed a Uighur soldier who was part of a convoy going to Changan to sell horses to the Chinese.
Intermixed with these tales of lives, we learn of wars between the Chinese empire and Tibet, between the Uighurs and the Chinese empire etc. We learn how these wars impacted on the lives of these soldiers and traders. This is a book which shows us that the Silk Road is not just beautiful sceneries, exquisite Buddhist wall paintings and exotic peoples.