This is "an enthralling account" (Booklist) of an American missionary doctor and his unprecedented adventures in Iraq, Iran and Kurdistan in the mid 19th century. The amazing thing about reading this richly detailed and absorbing account of the life and times of Dr. Asahel Grant in Asia is that things in that volatile region have not changed so very much over time. Gordon is a student of the region, having been in the Peace Corps in Ankara, Turkey in the 1960s, and readers come away with a nuanced and deeper understanding of the geography and dynamics of the region. This book, as one reviewer has said, "sheds tremendous light on our present-day misadventures in Iraq."