The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the popularity of many recently released historical novels—from Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale to Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See—attests to the insatiable appetite readers have for stories of heroism and sacrifice that connect us to a disappearing generation.
– Red Hen Press

Join us for the AWP Virtual Book Club, a book club with a unique craft focus. Our featured book for June is Glorious Boy from bestselling author Aimee Liu. Released May 12, 2020, Glorious Boy has already been shared on “The 35 Best Books of 2020 to Add to your Reading List ASAP” by Good Housekeeping, New York Post’s “10 Best Books of the Week,” and Booklist’s “Top 10 Historical Fiction Books of 2020.” 

Starting Friday, June 12, 2020, join the conversation as we post discussion questions on the AWP Community of Writers Facebook group. Each Friday, craft-focused questions will be shared from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST, and we will hold a discussion in the comments underneath the posted questions. Respond to the question listed and engage in virtual craft conversation with other participants. 

Mark your calendars for discussions on Friday, June 12 and June 19. Our final meeting will be a “watch party” on June 26 at 5:00 p.m. on YouTube with Aimee Liu as she discusses her book and answers your questions.  

Ask the Author Questions

Have questions you would like to submit in advance for Aimee Liu to include in her video conversation? Please send them to socialmedia@awpwriter.org by June 19, 2020.

Purchase the Book

To purchase Glorious Boy, go to the Red Hen Press bookstore. A special 20% discount is being offered with code “AWPBOOKCLUB” for book club participants.

We ask that you consider purchasing the book directly from the press and/or an independent bookstore of your choice. In this time of coronavirus, we are committed to supporting small presses, independent publishers, and bookstores however we can.

About Glorious Boy

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.”

About the Author

Aimee Liu is the bestselling author of the novels Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face and the memoirs Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders and Solitaire. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, published as a Literary Guild Super Release, and serialized in Good Housekeeping. She’s received a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, a Bosque Fiction Prize, and special mention by the Pushcart Prize. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, Poets & Writers, and many other periodicals and anthologies. A past president of the national literary organization PEN Center USA, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College and is on the faculty of Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program at Port Townsend, WA. She lives in Los Angeles. More at www.aimeeliu.net.