The Journeyer

Marco Polo narrates an expansive and frequently unreliable version of the life that later produced his famous travel account. The novel begins with his unruly youth in Venice and follows his departure with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo. Their route takes them through the eastern Mediterranean, Persia, mountain passes, deserts and caravan cities where commerce, religion and political power are shaped by the connected but divided Mongol world.

At the court of Kublai Khan, Marco becomes an observer and participant in the Yuan dynasty’s government and journeys through territories largely unknown to western Europeans. Years of service, exploration and private adventure precede the difficult return to Venice. Jennings uses the gaps in the historical record to imagine what Marco omitted, misunderstood or deliberately embellished, making the book both a journey narrative and a fictional biography of encounter across Eurasia.