GLORIOUS BOY BY AIMEE LIU

Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: Red Hen Press (May 12, 2020)

Glorious Boy is a tale of war and devotion, longing and loss, and the power of love to prevail.
Set in India's remote Andaman Islands before and during WWII, the story revolves around a mysteriously mute 4-year-old who vanishes on the eve of Japanese Occupation. Little Ty's parents, Shep and Claire, will go to any lengths to rescue him, but neither is prepared for the brutal and soul-changing odyssey that awaits them.

It's 1942. The Japanese have invaded Burma and are closing in on India. After five years in the remote Andaman Islands, aspiring anthropologist Claire Durant and her husband Shep, a civil surgeon, must evacuate with their beloved but mysteriously mute four-year-old, Ty. They cannot, however, take Naila, the local girl whose ability to communicate with Ty has made them dangerously dependent on her. 

The morning of the evacuation, both children disappear. With time running out, Shep forces Claire onto the ship while he stays behind to find their son. But just days after landing in Calcutta, Claire learns that the Japanese have taken the Andamans--and cut off all access to her missing family. In the desperate odyssey that follows, Claire, Shep, and Naila will all take unimaginable risks while drawing deeply from their knowledge of these unique islands to save their beloved "glorious boy."

Review
Selected for:

Booklist's Top Ten Historical Fiction of 2020
New York Post's Best Books of the Week
Good Housekeeping's 20 Best Books of 2020 to Add to Your Reading List ASAP
Brit+Co's 12 Books That Will Take You on a Literary Vacation
Travel & Leisure's 20 New Books to Gift This Mother's Day
Parade's 30 Best Beach Reads of 2020
"The most memorable and original novel I've read in ages. Aimee Liu... evokes every side in a multi-cultural conversation with sympathy and rare understanding."
- Pico Iyer

"A riveting amalgam of history, family epic, anticolonial/antiwar treatise, cultural crossroads, and more, this latest from best-selling author Liu is a fascinating, irresistible marvel." -- Library Journal, starred review

"This fascinating novel examines the many dimensions of war, from the tragedy of loss to the unexpected relationships formed during conflict. The Andamans are a lush and unusual setting, a sacred home to all kinds of cultures and people, and Liu's prose is masterful. A good choice for book groups and for readers who are unafraid to be swept away." -- Booklist, starred review

"Liu upends the clichés of the white savior narrative." --Publishers Weekly

"A testament to the lengths we will go for the ones we love." --Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, author of Shadow Child and Hiroshima in the Morning

"Reminiscent of the tone and atmosphere of Somerset Maugham and George Orwell's Asia-set novels, Glorious Boy is a Second World War story of adventure and loss, uniquely set in the Andaman Islands, one of India's farthest flung territories" - Asian Review of Books

"So blisteringly alive you feel the swampy heat and the bugs, so emotionally true, it grips at every page. Just magnificent and not to be missed." --Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You

"The heart of this book is what it means to be a mother... How do we learn what isn't instinct? How do we protect ourselves and others from our own best intentions? With a generous and exacting eye, Liu explores these questions and more, and we, lucky readers, get to go along on the ride." --Karen Shepard, author of Kiss Me Someone

"A riveting amalgam of history, family epic, anticolonial/antiwar treatise, cultural crossroads, and more, this latest from best-selling author Liu is a fascinating, irresistible marvel." --Smithsonian BookDragon

"Channeling some past classics also skeptical of the colonial enterprise, Glorious Boy stands out from the crowded shelves of World War II literature by immersing the reader in one of the remoter theatres of the Asian half of the War." -- Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong


Featured by:

Ms. Magazine
The Historical Novel Society
Hasty Booklist
SheReads
Association of Writing Programs Virtual Book Club
A Mighty Blaze
Must Read Fiction

"In Glorious Boy, Liu's superb writing brings alive the strange days at the end of empire, from the torpid heat of the Andamanese jungles, to the bustle of metropolitan Calcutta. She carries the reader in an epic drama of a family caught up in events beyond their control all the way through to the nail-biting ending." - AuthorLink Writers&Readers Magazine

THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

I loved GLORIOUS BOY by Aimee Liu. Beautifully written, engrossing and riveting, this is a book that I devoured in a day as I was immersed into the story. This historical fiction book is set in WWII 1940’s in the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal. The characters were compelling and so is the political backdrop of what was happening historically in that part of the world. The protagonist is Claire Durant an anthropologist doing field study who arrives in the archipelago with her British physician husband, Shep – and while there they have a child Ty who is mute. Ty develops a friendship with Naila who is able to communicate with him. The war brings the Japanese to the island and on the day they are to leave, both Ty and Naila went missing.

This is a truly fantastic read that is multifasceted dealing with tragedy of the war, the human strength of perseverance and survival, parents’ sacrifice and love for their child and hope. This is a wonderfully research novel that is heart wrenching and enlightening read full of depth and deep meaning. I highly recommend this amazing book!

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:

Aimee Liu is a best-selling novelist, essayist, and nonfiction author based in Los Angeles.

Her forthcoming novel is GLORIOUS BOY, due out from Red Hen Press on May 12, 2020. This tale of family devotion, war, and survival is set on India's remote Andaman Islands before and during WWII and revolves around a mysteriously mute 4-year-old who vanishes on the eve of Japanese Occupation. Little Ty's parents, Shep and Claire, will go to any lengths to rescue him, but neither is prepared for the brutal odyssey that awaits them.

She is also the author of GAINING: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders, published by Warner Books, February, 2007. Drawing on her own history of anorexia as well as interviews with more than forty other former anorexics and bulimics, Liu picks up her exploration of recovery where she ended her acclaimed memoir of anorexia nervosa, SOLITAIRE (Harper & Row, 1979), at age twenty-five. Back then, she thought recovery meant eating well. Gaining proves that healthy nutrition is only a first step. True recovery requires a new understanding of the role that genetics, personality, relationships, and anxiety play in these disorders. Liu uses cutting edge research to dispel the myth that fashion is to blame. She examines the real reasons eating disorders -- at all ages -- are on the rise, and how they can be prevented in future generations.

Aimee Liu also is a novelist. FLASH HOUSE (Warner Books, 2003) is a tale of suspense and Cold War intrigue set in Central Asia. CLOUD MOUNTAIN (Warner Books, 1997) is based on the true story of her American grandmother and Chinese revolutionary grandfather. Liu’s first novel, FACE(Warner Books, 1994), deals with mixed-race identity. These books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.