“Dori Jones Yang makes the era and people come alive with a fast-paced and ultimately beautiful account of two young people, one who was real and the other who could have been…”
—Professor Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, about Daughter of Xanadu.
Son of Venice: A Story of Marco Polo
Son of Venice, A Story of Marco Polo, is the sequel to Daughter of Xanadu, and takes up the story of Emmajin and Marco as they travel west along the Silk Road. They face battles, intrigue, betrayal and challenges to their unconventional love.
A Journey on the Silk Road…
Readers who enjoyed Daughter of Xanadu will be eager to find out what happened to Marco Polo and Emmajin, fictional granddaughter of Khubilai Khan, after they set out on their epic journey to the West. Son of Venice continues the tale of Emmajin, an excellent archer who poured all her energy into her dream of becoming the first woman soldier in the Mongol army. In Daughter of Xanadu, Emmajin met Marco Polo, a traveling merchant from Venice, and he fascinated her with tales of romantic love and caused her to question her ambition.
Son of Venice picks up the story as Emmajin begins her journey to the West, assigned by Khubilai Khan to carry a letter to establish peace and cooperation between her homeland and Marco Polo’s. Traveling in the same caravan, Marco worries when a shaman’s warning of traitors and danger casts a shadow over their journey.
Emmajin wants to win respect as an ambassador of the Great Khan and also to enjoy her time with Marco Polo. But her guards—and her cousin, Temur—insist on keeping them apart. Plus, as she travels west with the army, she begins to doubt the Khan’s intentions. Does he really want her to make peace with the West?
Told in alternating points of view, this book follows the adventures of Emmajin and Marco Polo on their Silk Road journey. They face battles, intrigue, sinister plots, and unexpected challenges to their unconventional love. Can Marco’s famed eloquence and cleverness help when Emmajin faces perils beyond any she imagined?
Read a Short Excerpt
My heart beat wildly, with the drum. The thugs seemed mesmerized, too. Their leader quickly sheathed his knife, as if recognizing a greater power.
Then the shaman began to whirl. As he twirled, the strands of silk and fur and beads streamed out from his shoulders, first one way, then the other. They clanked and tinkled as he spun.
I had seen him dance like this once before. The Turks, I guessed, had also seen a shaman dance. They had similar traditions. We all stood, rooted to the spot, watching the performance in fascination and awe. No one leaves during a shaman’s dance.
The shaman began shouting words in Mongolian. Although I could speak it fluently, I caught only a few of them at first. “Tengri,” I heard—the name the Mongols use for God of Heaven. Something about spirits of wind and fire and moon.
“The lady!” he shouted. “The one with the heart of a warrior!” He twirled full around, and the snout of a mink on the end of a long strand of fur nearly hit me, as if eager to bite my cheek. I ducked.
The lady? Is that what he had said?
“Great danger!” he shouted. “Daaangerrr!”
That word I did hear clearly. Did he mean Emmajin?
“Traitors!” he shouted. “Capture! Defeat!”
Connecting generations and cultures through the lives of ordinary people
Dori Jones Yang is a writer who aims to build bridges between cultures and between generations. Author of a wide variety of books for different audiences, she loves to explore different countries, explain complex issues in understandable language, and make history come alive.
