The Ides of March
by Valerio Massimo Manfredi | 
The Talisman of Troy
by Valerio Massimo Manfredi | 
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See | 
The Bonesetter's Daughter
by Amy Tan | 
The Kitchen God's Wife
by Amy Tan | 
The Hundred Secret Senses
by Amy Tan | 
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie | 
The Samurai's Garden
by Gail Tsukiyama | 
The Valley of Amazement
by Amy Tan | 
China Dolls
by Lisa See | 
The Sand Pebbles
by Richard McKenna | 
Swimming in the Moon
by Pamela Schoenewaldt | 
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
by Robert Crichton | 
Three Kingdoms
by Guanzhong Luo | 
The Fortunate Pilgrim
by Mario Puzo | 
The King of Mulberry Street
by Donna Jo Napoli | 
My Splendid Concubine
by Lloyd Lofthouse | 
Great Maria
by Cecelia Holland | 
Cloud Mountain
by Aimee Liu | 
The Jade Peony
by Wayson Choy |
Anatolia, AD 260. The Roman outpost of Edessa is on its last legs after the Persian siege, and Roman Emperor Publius Licinius Valerianus agrees to meet his adversary to negotiate peace. But the meeting is a trap and the Emperor ends up in enemy hands, along with the commander of his personal guard, Marcus Metellus Aquila, and ten of his most valiant and trusted men. Their destiny is sealed: they will rot away in a mine, forced into slavery. But Metellus - legate of the Second Augusta Legion, hero of the empire - and his men break free and find shelter at an oasis, where they meet a mysterious, exiled prince. The Romans become the prince's private militia, agreeing to safeguard the prince's journey back to his homeland, Sera Maior, the mythical Kingdom of Silk - China. And so they begin an extraordinary and epic journey through the forests of India, the Himalayan mountains, the deserts of central Asia, all the way to the heart of China - as the very survival of the world's greatest two empires is at stake.