Author: Dori Jones Yang

Dori Jones Yang worked as an international journalist before turning Chinese history and cross-cultural experience into fiction. Daughter of Xanadu, published by Delacorte Press in 2011, is a young-reader historical novel set within the Mongol court of Khubilai Khan. Its protagonist, Emmajin, wants to become a warrior and is asked to learn about the unfamiliar customs of Marco Polo. That assignment brings ambition, loyalty, and curiosity into the same story while placing a fictional young woman near recognizable historical figures. Yang’s years reporting from Asia and her fluency in Mandarin inform the cultural detail, but the novel keeps Emmajin’s choices at its center. Daughter of Xanadu later received a companion story, Son of Venice, which continues the connected historical world. By combining court life, travel, and a young protagonist’s changing judgment, Yang offers an accessible route into the era without turning the book into a simple recital of events.