Gentlemen of the road

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Michael Chabon: Gentlemen of the road (2007, Sceptre)

204 pages

English language

Published Feb. 11, 2007 by Sceptre.

ISBN:
978-0-340-95354-9
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OCLC Number:
153555152

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4 stars (1 review)

Two wandering adventurers are variously plying their trades as swords for hire, horse thieves and con artists - until fortune entangles them in the myriad schemes and battles that follow a bloody coup in the great medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars.

14 editions

A classic adventure tale

4 stars

I hadn't read any Michael Chabon novels before and chose this one purely for its historical setting as I hoped it would fit nicely alongside a couple of other recent reads: Ibn Fadlan's travel memoirs of Western Asia in the Viking era and Edouardo Albert's humorous Conrad Monk And The Great Heathen Army adventure tale. Gentlemen Of The Road is closer to Conrad Monk in style, although not as funny, however it does feel based in a solid historical reality and I could appreciate that Chabon had certainly done his research.

The story is a classic adventure tale which gallops across medieval Khazaria at such a pace that I did sometimes find myself left behind. At its heart is a wonderful friendship between two men, apparently as different in physical appearance and temperament as it is possible to be, yet perfectly suited to each other and utterly loyal. They get …

Subjects

  • Fiction
  • History

Places

  • Caucasus