[XeTeX] New user of XeTeX: book in Esperanto (UTF-8)

[Sian Mountbatten]

Hello list.

I am translating a book written in English into Esperanto. I am using 
UTF-8 for the book's content.
Is it possible to use xetex to read UTF-8 text? Should I create a 
standard LaTeX document and use
XeTeX as a LaTeX package, or can XeTeX be used on it's own? Some help to 
get me started would
be very useful.

Thanks in advance

-- 
Sian Mountbatten
Specialisto pri Algol 68