The Road to Samarcand
by Patrick O'Brian
"This story begins with a sloop in the South China Sea barely surviving a killer typhoon. The time is the 1930s, and the protagonist is a teenaged American boy whose missionary parents have just died. In the company of his rough seafaring uncle and an elderly English cousin, an eminent archaeologist, Derrick sets off in search of ancient treasures in Central Asia." -- back cover.
