he second leg of our book tour—China and Southeast Asia—didn’t go over so well, admittedly. I think it was because of the political tension between India and Pakistan. Also, we hadn’t thought to hire a translator, and the phrase book we were using, it turned out, was very poorly done. We tried to explain our aesthetic as best we could to the two or three people who happened to be in the bookstore, using phrases like “Can I have a menu, please?” and “Excuse me, is there a nearby lavatory?”