The most recommended books on the Silk Road

Who picked these books? Meet our 22 experts.

22 authors created a book list connected to the Silk Road, and here are their favorite Silk Road books.
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Book cover of The Gates of Heaven

K.V. Johansen Author Of Blackdog

From my list on with gods as characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Canadian writer with a degree in Mediaeval Studies. Even as a child, I wrote stories about characters who weren’t entirely human; they were also always people lurking on the edges of things—families, cultures, places, ways of being, even people existing only on the edges of becoming themselves. Those have always been where I found my stories and as an adult I haven’t lost this fascination and the need to tell such tales. Gods, assassins, devils, demons, shapeshifters, immortal wanderers, and ordinary people caught up in their history, vast, deep worlds, and complex charactersthat’s what I do. 

K.V.'s book list on with gods as characters

K.V. Johansen Why did K.V. love this book?

The Gates of Heaven is book three of Seven Brothers, a four-book series, in which the presence and role of the gods become more and more apparent as the overarching story unfolds. Llesho’s story starts off as what you might expect of a young prince in exile, sold into slavery as a pearl-diver, who escapes and sets out to find his scattered brothers. It doesn’t end up where you think, and this book is the point in the series where the story of gods and goddesses and dragons involved in human affairs really takes over as the main plotline, though the threads of it have been there from start. Mountains, grasslands, ancient cities, and their trade routes—this is an excellent silk road fantasy as well.

By Curt Benjamin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Gates of Heaven as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The evil sorcerer Markko has sworn to capture the last of Prince Llesho's brothers. If Markko succeeds, Llesho will not be able to save Thebin, or reopen the Gates of Heaven. As murder and dark magic threaten Llesho's alliances, he realizes his only chance lies in finding his brothers first. So begins a desperate hunt that will lead the prince from the slave market to a sea voyage fraught with perils, and an incredible discovery about the sorcerer who seems bent on his destruction.


Book cover of The Journeyer

Paul Meachair Author Of Belleau Wood - A Marines Story

From my list on serious works of historical fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

Now retired after a full life, I grew up with a passion for history and the people who made it, being very fortunate during over thirty years at sea to visit many locations around the world where the characters I read about lived. I am also fortunate now to write the history novels I like to read.

Paul's book list on serious works of historical fiction

Paul Meachair Why did Paul love this book?

The author does a huge amount of detailed research in his books, and I can escape into all of them because he makes the past come alive.

Marco Polo was nicknamed "Marco of the millions" on his return from the East due to his unbelievable stories. Lying on his death bed, he confessed, "I have not told the half of what I saw and did!" and I can believe that.

This superb read takes me from Venice's back streets and the dangers of the Silk Road to the Kublai Khan court. All the historical accuracy brings the past to life. It can be explicit in parts, giving it an X movie rating.  

By Gary Jennings,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Journeyer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The epic journeys of Marco Polo are recreated in a historical saga that follows the adventures of the Venetian explorer from medieval Italy to the court of Kublai Khan


Book cover of The Devils' Dance

Sophie Ibbotson Author Of Uzbekistan

From my list on to discover the Silk Road.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I first visited Central Asia in 2008, little did I know that it would become the focus of my life and work. I now advise the World Bank and national governments on economic development, with a particular focus on tourism, and I’m the Chairman of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. I am Uzbekistan’s Ambassador for Tourism, a co-founder of the Silk Road Literary Festival, and I’ve written and updated guidebooks to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the Silk Road.

Sophie's book list on to discover the Silk Road

Sophie Ibbotson Why did Sophie love this book?

Tragically little Central Asian literature has been translated into English: Hamid Ismailov’s books are notable exceptions. The Devils’ Dance won the 2019 EBRD Literature Prize, and it was the first time an Uzbek writer was awarded a major international prize. It is the desire to see more writers like Hamid be able to bring their books to global audiences that prompted me to co-found the Silk Road Literary Festival.  

By Hamid Ismailov,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Devils' Dance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


On New Years' Eve 1938, the writer Abdulla Qodiriy is taken from his home by the Soviet secret police and thrown into a Tashkent prison. There, to distract himself from the physical and psychological torment of beatings and mindless interrogations, he attempts to mentally reconstruct the novel he was writing at the time of his arrest based on the tragic life of the Uzbek poet-queen Oyhon, married to three khans in succession, and living as Abdulla now does, with the threat of execution hanging over her. As he gets to know his cellmates, Abdulla discovers that the Great Game of…


Book cover of Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road

Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

From my list on women exploring the world and self.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives. 

Mimi's book list on women exploring the world and self

Mimi Zieman Why did Mimi love this book?

I found the author's gorgeous writing and deep reflection to be irresistible. Harris is a true explorer of the world and the self as well as a brilliant writer.

This book showcases the curiosity and awe that drove Harris and her best friend to bicycle across the Silk Road. While pedaling out of bounds on her bicycle, she effortlessly led me to new territories of thought and imagination. Her descriptions are vivid, and I identified fully with her love of wildness.

By Kate Harris,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Lands of Lost Borders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Lands of Lost Borders carried me up into a state of openness and excitement I haven't felt for years. It's a modern classic."-Pico Iyer

A brilliant, fierce writer, and winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize, makes her debut with this enthralling travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road-an illuminating and thought-provoking fusion of The Places in Between, Lab Girl, and Wild that dares us to challenge the limits we place on ourselves and the natural world.

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved-to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and…


Book cover of Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia

Elizabeth Wayland Barber Author Of The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance

From Elizabeth's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Textile archaeologist Folk-lore addict Language addict Wordsmith Dance addict

Elizabeth's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Elizabeth Wayland Barber Why did Elizabeth love this book?

I’ve spent my life tracing the first 20,000 years of our drive to dress ourselves, and this book adds unique knowledge to that search. 

Aslan traces the development of the three great natural fibers, wool, silk, and cotton, in Central Asia, a remarkably convoluted and fascinating story ranging from handmaking gorgeous textiles to the destruction of people and environments that the growing of water-thirsty cotton for vast markets has caused. Indeed, cotton recently swallowed the entire inland Sea of Azov and its tributaries, leaving the marooned docks and ships stuck in this new desert. 

His well-paced page-turner draws from decades of personal experience living and working there, helping rebuild local lives through reconsidered textile industries. The bottom line is we must stop wasting this wonderful but destructive fiber.

By Chris Aslan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Unravelling the Silk Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. Older still was the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed, colonialism and environmental disaster.

At this intersection of human history, fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons. Chris Aslan, who has spent fifteen years living and working in the region, expertly unravels the strands of this tangled history and embroiders them with his own…


Book cover of A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road

Joanna Lillis Author Of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan

From my list on to summon up the spirit of Central Asia.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a reporter and author with a passion for seeking out stories less told, and there are plenty of those in Central Asia, where I made my home more than two decades ago: first in Uzbekistan and, since 2005, in Kazakhstan. I have found telling overlooked tales from an overlooked region that is overshadowed by its mighty neighbours – the Russian bear to the north and the Chinese dragon to the east – to be both rewarding and valuable. I hope these book selections will bring more stories about the people who populate Central Asia to the attention of readers with inquisitive minds.

Joanna's book list on to summon up the spirit of Central Asia

Joanna Lillis Why did Joanna love this book?

As I perched on the ramparts of the citadel in Khiva one sunny morning in autumn of 2001, the scene in the bazaar below of sellers hawking everything from recalcitrant sheep to giant melons and elaborately-carved furniture summoned up the exotic past of a town once traversed by caravans of merchants plying their trade between China and Europe. But what is compelling about this book is its focus not on Khiva’s illustrious history but on the present-day lives of the people the author encountered when he lived among them running a carpet-making workshop. Fascinating both for its forensic exploration of that ancient craft and for the sensitive depictions of the people of Khiva, this book is a true tale of the modern-day Silk Road.

By Christopher Aslan Alexander,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Carpet Ride to Khiva as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Silk Road conjures images of the exotic and the unknown. Most travellers simply pass along it. Brit Chris Alexander chose to live there. Ostensibly writing a guidebook, Alexander found life at the heart of the glittering madrassahs, mosques and minarets of the walled city of Khiva - a remote desert oasis in Uzbekistan - immensely alluring, and stayed.

Immersing himself in the language and rich cultural traditions Alexander discovers a world torn between Marx and Mohammed - a place where veils and vodka, pork and polygamy freely mingle - against a backdrop of forgotten carpet designs, crumbling but magnificent…


Book cover of The Silk Road: A New History

R.I. Moore Author Of The War on Heresy

From my list on the real Middle Ages.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a historian primarily of western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. My leading interest has shifted over many years from the people who were persecuted as heretics at that time to their persecutors, as it dawned on me that whereas scepticism about the teachings of the Roman (or any) church was easily understandable, the persecution of mostly rather humble people who presented no real threat to that Church or to wider society was not, and needed to be explained.

R.I.'s book list on the real Middle Ages

R.I. Moore Why did R.I. love this book?

The Silk Road is a nineteenth-century invention, but the movements of people, things, and ideas in and through the immense and often terrifying space between modern Iran and China generated change in every sphere and engaged an astonishing variety of people. Valerie Hansen’s exploration of seven places along the imagined route and what has been found in them offers a lucid and lively introduction to a wider medieval world and how we know about it. 

By Valerie Hansen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Silk Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different-and far more interesting-as revealed in this new history.

In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. For centuries, key records remained hidden-sometimes deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed…


Book cover of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

Timothy C. Winegard Author Of The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity

From my list on challenge what you thought you knew about history.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a New York Times bestselling author of six books, including The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator. My works have been published globally in more than fifteen languages. I hold a PhD from the University of Oxford, served as an officer in the Canadian and British Armies, and have appeared in numerous documentaries, television programs, and podcasts. I am an associate professor of history (and, as a true Canadian, head coach of the hockey team) at Colorado Mesa University.

Timothy's book list on challenge what you thought you knew about history

Timothy C. Winegard Why did Timothy love this book?

This book was a pertinent reminder of the prevailing yet misplaced, western-centric historical epicenter by realigning the map toward the East while providing a fresh, cosmopolitan perspective of our shared saga. Frankopan traverses the dynamic Eurasian Steppe and Silk Roads, which, for millennia, have connected and coupled people, products, pathogens, economies, armies, inventions, and ideas that shaped our global village.

By Peter Frankopan,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked The Silk Roads as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller - a major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China and India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce and culture - and is shaping the modern world. This region, the…


Book cover of Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes Through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland

Sophie Ibbotson Author Of Uzbekistan

From my list on to discover the Silk Road.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I first visited Central Asia in 2008, little did I know that it would become the focus of my life and work. I now advise the World Bank and national governments on economic development, with a particular focus on tourism, and I’m the Chairman of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. I am Uzbekistan’s Ambassador for Tourism, a co-founder of the Silk Road Literary Festival, and I’ve written and updated guidebooks to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the Silk Road.

Sophie's book list on to discover the Silk Road

Sophie Ibbotson Why did Sophie love this book?

Food is without doubt one of the most insightful windows into any culture. The food we eat is a mirror of who we are and where we come from, a strong trigger for memory, and cooking together or sharing a meal creates an unusually strong bond between people who were previously strangers. In Red Sands, Caroline Eden combines reportage, photography, and recipes to build a rich picture of Central Asia, introducing people and places foreigners would never normally encounter. Her stories are diverse, evocative, and thought-provoking, but they have one thing in common: they make you hungry for adventure and to taste the many ingredients and dishes she describes.

By Caroline Eden,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Red Sands as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Andre Simon Food Book Award 2020

"Caroline Eden is an extraordinarily creative and gifted writer. Red Sands captures the sights, tastes and feel of Central Asia so well that when reading this book I was sometimes convinced I was there in person. A wonderful book from start to finish." Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads\

"Caroline Eden, whose book Black Sea was showered with awards, is on the road again, this time travelling through the heart of Asia. It's not your usual cookbook, it's more a travel book with recipes, the recipes acting as postcards which…


Book cover of House of Eclipses

Tricia Copeland Author Of Kingdom of Embers

From my list on magical realms just beyond our reach.

Why am I passionate about this?

Since reading The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, and The Crystal Cave as a kid and teen, I’ve been hooked on all things magical. I love the fantasy genre and characters who are driven to use their powers to protect their tribes. I am constantly reading books about witches, vampires, the fae, sirens, shifters, and any other supernatural character with a good storyline surrounding them. L.J. Smith, Cassandra Clare, P.C. and Kristin Cast, Stephenie Meyer, and so many other YA fantasy writers are absolutely my heroes. Fantasy books not only entertain but have helped me process life and our world in a safe environment. 

Tricia's book list on magical realms just beyond our reach

Tricia Copeland Why did Tricia love this book?

The main character in House of Eclipses is the third daughter of the “king," appointed by their God, Sol. Her father abuses her but when he sees a way to increase his power, sends her to enemy lands to secure that power for him. She looks at this task as an opportunity to get the upper hand on her father, but things quickly get out of hand. She discovers she may not be able to follow her father’s orders. Does she follow her heart or do her father’s bidding and potentially escape his wrath? I love that this book has the element of a character choosing her own path in life. The second book in this series takes a while to dig into but House of Eclipses will not disappoint.

By Casey L. Bond,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked House of Eclipses as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Capture his heart.
Steal his crown.
Free my kingdom.

Noor is the unwanted, unloved third born of the Aten, chosen vessel of the sun goddess, Sol. While she has no chance at inheriting her father’s title, what she truly longs for is peace from his unrelenting hatred. Hope builds that she may finally be able to claim that reprieve when a missive arrives from the House of the Moon.

The new Lumin, chosen of the moon god, Lumos, seeks to broker peace with the Kingdom of Helios for the first time in ages. He envisions open trade routes and an…


Book cover of The Gates of Heaven
Book cover of The Journeyer
Book cover of The Devils' Dance

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