Set at the time of the Han dynasty in China, the Parthian Empire in Persia and the Roman Empire in, well, Rome, this book goes further than any in explaining how the first Silk Roads era (100 B.C ...

Christopher Wilton-Steer A version of this article appears in print on July 27, 2025, Page 22 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Up Close / ‘The Silk Road,’ by Christopher Wilton-Steer.

A new book recounts the last leg of a 40,000km Silk Road odyssey, revealing the age-old sights and sounds of the Middle Kingdom.