When Asia Was the World debutantes If Looks Could Kill introduces

If Looks Could Kill introduces a heroine whose blend of wry humor and gutsiness will win over readers everywhere

Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters

and insight

from planning a "tour de neighborhood" bike race to telling family stories

rivals -- and drew on tens of thousands of pages of documents to produce this extraordinary and first-ever portrait of a legend and his times

When Asia Was the World debutantes If Looks Could Kill introducesWhile European civilization stagnated in the "Dark Ages," Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy, and religion. Linked together by a web of spiritual, commercial, and intellectual connections, the distant regions of Asia's vast civilization, from Arabia to China, hummed with trade, international diplomacy, and the exchange of ideas. Stewart Gordon has fashioned a compelling and unique look at Asia from AD 700 to 1500 a time when Asia