A collection of nine stories. In At the Auction of the Rubby Slippers, the author reflects on the role of auctioneers in establishing "the value of our pasts, of our future, of our lives," while an allegory on the immigrant experience is entitled Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship.

A romance in China featuring Miranda Grant, a 40-year-old widow from Colorado on a business trip to negotiate a knitting contract. She meets Yuan Li, 55, a half-American businessman. The food and the sights are great, but the lack of freedom takes its toll.

"The foundations of modern knowledge--philosophy, math, astronomy, geography--were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed....

"'Surprising and richly satisfying' (Megan Marshall); 'Beautifully crafted...subtle, polished, and poised' (Stacy Schiff); In 1871, five young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States. Their mission: learn Western ways and return tohelp nurture a new generation of enlightened men to lead Japan. Raised in traditional samurai households during the turmoil of civil war, three of these unusual ambassadors--Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige...