The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams


 Contents
 
 Half Title
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Contents
 Epigraph
 Chapter One: The First Time I Was Stoned to Death…
 Chapter Two: Monkey, Donkey, Master, Mule
 Chapter Three: The Expensive Nature of Love
 Chapter Four: Our Well-Being Hindered by a Well Being Hindered
 Chapter Five: A List of Killers and Reasons for Killing
 Chapter Six: Enter the Viking Berserker
 Chapter Seven: A Little Sleep, a Little Folding of the Hands to Rest
 Chapter Eight: Death by Dreaming
 Chapter Nine: Enter the Mongol Gunner
 Chapter Ten: The Buyer of Dreams
 Chapter Eleven: Ablutions and Pollutions
 Chapter Twelve: A Quick Aside
 Chapter Thirteen: Enter the Rogue Legion of the Roman Army
 Chapter Fourteen: The End of My Testimony
 Chapter Fifteen: The Cost of Six Bolts of Silk
 Chapter Sixteen: The Expansive Nature of Love
 Author’s Note
 Bibliography
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 About the Illustrator
 Some Notes on This Book’s Production
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Half Title
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Contents
 CHAPTER ONE: The First Time I Was Stoned to Death…
 Bibliography
 Acknowledgments
 Start of Content
 
 
 
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 This is an Arthur A. Levine book
 Published by Levine Querido
 
 www.levinequerido.com • [email protected]
 Levine Querido is distributed by Chronicle Books, LLC
 Text copyright © 2023 by Daniel NayeriIllustrations copyright © 2023 by Daniel Miyares
 All rights reserved
 Library of Congress Control Number: 2022945159
 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-64614-303-0
 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64614-331-3 (Reflowable EPUB)
 Published March 2023
 
 
 To Alexandrabrighter than all the gemsin all the eyesin every courtof every queenin this worldand the world of make-believe.You, my merchant’s crown
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CONTENTS
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE The First Time I Was Stoned to Death…
 CHAPTER TWO Monkey, Donkey, Master, Mule
 CHAPTER THREE The Expensive Nature of Love
 CHAPTER FOUR Our Well-Being Hindered by a Well Being Hindered
 CHAPTER FIVE A List of Killers and Reasons for Killing
 CHAPTER SIX Enter the Viking Berserker
 CHAPTER SEVEN A Little Sleep, a Little Folding of the Hands to Rest
 CHAPTER EIGHT Death by Dreaming
 CHAPTER NINE Enter the Mongol Gunner
 CHAPTER TEN The Buyer of Dreams
 CHAPTER ELEVEN Ablutions and Pollutions
 CHAPTER TWELVE A Quick Aside
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Enter the Rogue Legion of the Roman Army
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN The End of My Testimony
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Cost of Six Bolts of Silk
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Expansive Nature of Love
 Author’s Note
 Bibliography
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 About the Illustrator
 Some Notes on This Book’s Production
 
 
 
 In the eleventh century, the Silk Road was a network of dirt roads and mountain passes that spanned from Xi’an in China to Baghdad, controlled at every outpost by local warlords and traveled by motley caravans of thieves, merchants, and scholars. It was three times longer than the Wild West, crossed deserts as barren as Antarctica, and stranded more men to die than the Seven Seas. No one dared it alone. No one traveled the entire length, and no one defied the four capital kings … except for a fellow named Cid, and that evil beast was likely just a fairy tale.
 —JONAS LINDSAY, Professor Emeritus
 
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE
 The First Time I Was Stoned to Death …
 
 
 
 The first time I was stoned to death by an angry mob, I was not even a criminal. I had not stolen so much as a sumac berry, though I will admit now that I deserved the punishment. It was dusk, but the desert stones still sizzled from the daytime sun.
 I ran like an injured animal as quickly as I could, which was not quick because I was shoeless. In the Tarim Basin, the sand could cook bread faster than a tandoor oven. Stones flew in the air and struck me in the head, one and then another.
 I screamed.
 I screamed with my whole neck.
 “Help! Help! I am a dying child! Grown men are stoning me as we speak!”
 I screamed even though there was no one around to hear my prayers except for God, and it was not His will at the moment to spare me.
 I ran more.
 Behind me rolled a thundering cloud of dirt and grit and ash. From inside the cloud, I could hear the sneezes and grumbling of Brother Mariz and Brother Koor. I knew them, of course, the monks in the dust cloud chasing after me, swinging their old swords in the air in the manner of those unaccustomed to sword-swinging.
 From the back of the crowd, two of the