They're an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa a.d. 950, living as they please and surviving however they can--as blades and thieves for hire and as practiced bamboozlers, cheerfully separating the gullible from their money. But when they are dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire, they soon find themselves the half-willing generals in a full-scale revolution--on a road paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of.

Praise for Gentlemen of the Road

"Within a few pages I was happily tangled in Chabon's] net of finely filigreed language, seduced by an old-school-style swashbuckling quest . . . laced with surprises and humor."--San Francisco Chronicle

" Chabon] is probably the premiere prose stylist--the Updike--of his generation."--Time

"The action is intricate and exuberant. . . . It's hard to resist its gathering momentum, not to mention the sheer headlong pleasure of Chabon's language."--The New York Times Book Review

" A] wild, wild adventure . . . abounds with lush language . . . This book roars to be read aloud."--Chicago Sun-Times