Jan Myrdal

A 12-year-old boy cannot forgive his parentsfor bringing him back to Sweden after a year in America. He hates the land of his birth--the buildings are small, thecars old-fashioned, the people boring--and he misses hisgirlfriend. The novel, set in 1940, is the third volume of afictionalized autobiography.

In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from Xi'an to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs. --from publisher description