Glorious Boy. Aimee Liu

      

      GLORIOUS BOY

      GLORIOUS BOY

      a novel

      Aimee Liu

       Red Hen Press | Pasadena, CA

       Glorious Boy

      Copyright © 2020 by Aimee Liu

      All Rights Reserved

      No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner.

      Book design by Mark E. Cull

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Liu, Aimee, author.

      Title: Glorious boy : a novel / Aimee Liu.

      Description: First edition. | Pasadena : Red Hen Press, [2020]

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019022868 (print) | LCCN 2019022869 (ebook) | ISBN 9781597098892 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781597098472 (ebook)

      Subjects: GSAFD: Suspense fiction.

      Classification: LCC PS3562.I797 G58 2020 (print) | LCC PS3562.I797 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022868

      Publication of this book has been made possible in part through the financial support of Ann Beman.

      The National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Ah-manson Foundation, the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, the Max Factor Family Foundation, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation, the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Audrey & Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, the Kinder Morgan Foundation, the Meta & George Rosenberg Foundation, the Allergan Foundation, the Riordan Foundation, Amazon Literary Partnership, and the Mara W. Breech Foundation partially support Red Hen Press.

      First Edition

      Published by Red Hen Press

       www.redhen.org

       For my own Glorious Boys— Marty, Dan, Graham

      The Andaman Islands lie in the Bay of Bengal, between the 10th and 14th Parallels of North Latitude, and between the 92nd and 94th Meridians of East Longitude. . . .

      . . . In 1788–89 the Government of Bengal sought to establish in [these] Islands a penal colony associated with a harbor of refuge . . . now called Port Blair.

      —Maurice Vidal Portman, 1899

      A History of Our Relations With the Andamanese

      The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing,

      But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.

      —Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

      He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate.

      —Rudyard Kipling, Kim

      Contents

       Part One

       I.March 13, 1942

       II.1936

       1937

       1938

       1939–1940

       III:June 1941

       July 1941

       November 1941

       December 1941

       March 1942

       IV:March 13, 1942

       March 17, 1942

       March 20, 1942

       March 21, 1942

       Part Two

       V:March 22, 1942

       March 23, 1942

       March 24, 1942

       March 25–30, 1942

       VI:April 1942

       May 1942

       VII:June 1942

       October–December 1942

       VIII:January 1943

       February 1943

       IX:March 1943

       X:March–October 1943

       December 1943

       XI:October 1945

       Epilogue: 1967

       Author’s Note

       About the Author

PART ONE

       I

      March 13, 1942

      When Shep lifts the blackout shades, a thin film of gray invades the bedroom, exposing his annoyance. He’s overreacting, Claire tells herself. The deadline for boarding’s not till two o’clock. It’s just that he needs to