One of the world's most ruthless warriors, Chinggis Khan conquered nearly all of Asia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, transforming the scattered and impoverished Mongols into an
exceptionally proud and powerful nation. In this riveting and thoroughly researched portrait, Yasushi Inoue drives at the root of the khan's great desires and insatiable appetite for
supremacy.
Beginning with his birth in 1162, The Blue Wolf follows the crucial alliances that led to Chinggis Khan's great campaigns in North China, Bukhara, and Samarkand, as well as the state of
Khorazm. The khan was obsessed with his ancestry, not knowing whether he was the descendent of the blue wolf (mythical progenitor of the Mongols and the noble Borjigin line) or merely the
bastard son of a Merkid tribesman. For Inoue Yasushi, Chinggis's ancestral anxiety lies at the center of his relentless push for empire. He struggled with his paternity as intensely as he
fought his battles, and his victories stood as proof that the brave warrior was a true Mongol.
The question of paternity also formed the largest wedge between Chinggis and his eldest son, Jochi, a boy born in captivity and of similarly questionable heritage. Hailed for its sophistication
and rich imagining of a remote world, The Blue Wolf puts a human cast on the legendary force that changed Asia and the world.
