Bridge of Birds (1984)

Number Ten Ox and Master Li search for a cure for a village's children, following a route through wonders, frauds and apparently unrelated troubles. Their partnership gives the episodic journey its comic rhythm, while the connections between encounters gradually become more important. Hughart's setting is an invented, myth-inflected China rather than historical reconstruction. Pick it for a boisterous road adventure whose digressions are part of the design.