The Years of Rice and Salt

This is an epic journey through many hundreds of years of Eastern culture, charting its shaping of world history following the almost complete annihilation of Western civilization by a great plague. The journey begins with Bold, a Mongolian army deserter, who crosses the ravaged wastelands of the west until he reaches Egypt where he is sold as a slave. There he meets Kyu, a young black eunuch, and the two go on to find work in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Thus begins this 're-incarnation compendium' in which Bold and Kyu are born again many times over, escorting us through history in their many guises - Chinese explorer, alchemist, Samurai warrior, poet, doctor, physicist. But always their names begin with the same letters, one of the many literary devices employed by the author to help the reader steer a course through territory which is both uncharted and unimaginable. The book chronicles a centuries-long battle for supremacy - religious, military and scientific - and culminates in a 'long war'. Although it has obvious parallels with the first world war, with its vivid and horrific descriptions of trench warfare, this is a 67-year conflict between Chinese and Muslim civilization leaving a billion dead. This weighty tome, biblical in its scope and style, provides a challenging read, both in terms of size (over 700 pages) and in the complexity of its arguments. These include lengthy explorations of the world's religions and philosophies, technical descriptions of scientific advances and military capability and involved discussion of some of the great moral questions of history such as distribution of wealth and the subjugation of women. The reader who can cope with all of this will be left with an unforgettable picture of how the world might have been and a sense of how events could yet unfold. (Kirkus UK)