The Year of the Horse

This is another great (but very hard to find) book by Rita Ritche, author of The Golden Hawks of Genghis Kahn. The inside jacket reads: “The wild pageantry of life in Genghis Kahn’s empire in the Gobi Desert forms the vividly authentic background for this exciting adventure of a Mongol boy in the year 1211–The Year of the Horse. Botokai’s father had been an honored and respected officer in the army of Genghis Kahn, until his conviction as a traitor ten years before. Stripped then of every possession, the family had been forced to live as outcasts and beggars in the teeming city of Karakorum. Although the father had died in disgrace, the boy was determined to prove his innocence and restore the family honor.”