The "glorious" sequel to Freeman Award-winning The Boy from Clearwater After his imprisonment in Green Island, Kun-lin struggles to pick up where he left off ten years earlier. He reconnects with his childhood crush Kimiko and finds work as an editor, jumping from publisher to publisher until finally settling at an advertising company. But when manhua publishing becomes victim to censorship, and many of his friends lose their jobs, Kun-lin takes matters into his own hands. He starts a children’s magazine, Prince, for a group of unemployed artists and his old inmates who cannot find work anywhere else. Kun-lin’s life finally seems to be looking up... but how long will this last? Forty years later, Kun-lin serves as a volunteer at the White Terror Memorial Park, promoting human rights education. There, he meets Yu Pei-Yun, a young college professor who provides him with an opportunity to reminisce on his past and how he picked himself up after grappling with bankruptcy and depression. With the end of martial law, Kun-lin and other former New-Lifers felt compelled to mobilize to rehabilitate fellow White Terror victims, forcing him to face his past head-on. While navigating his changing homeland, he must conciliate all parts of himself––the victim and the savior, the patriot and the rebel, a father to the future generation and a son to the old Taiwan––before he can bury the ghosts of his past. P R A I S E ★ “Yu, Zhou, and King bear glorious witness to little-known tragic history by empathetically spotlighting an everyday superhero who survived—and thrives.” –Booklist (starred) ★ “An accessible, timely account of Taiwan’s struggles for democracy and human rights as experienced through a personal lens.” –Kirkus (starred) “Triumphant and rewarding.” –Foreword
Freeman Book Award Winner GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honoree An incredible true story in graphic novel form that lays bare the tortured and triumphant history of Taiwan, an island claimed and fought over by many countries, through the life story of a man who lived through its most turbulent times. Part One: Taiwan, 1930s. Tsai Kun-lin, an ordinary boy born in Chingshui, recounts a carefree childhood despite the Japanese occupation: growing up happily with the company of nursery rhymes and picture books on Chingshui Street. As war emerges Tsai's memories shift to military parades, air raids, and watching others face conscription into the army. It seems no one can escape. After the war, the book-loving teenager tries hard to learn Mandarin and believes he is finally stepping towards a comfortable future; but little does he know, a dark cloud awaits him ahead. Part Two: Taiwan, 1950s. In his second year at Taichung First Senior High School, Tsai is arrested simply for joining a book club and subsequently tortured, deprived of civil rights, and sent to Green Island for "reformation." Lasting until his release in September 1960, Tsai, a victim of the White Terror era, spends ten years of his youth in prison on an unjust charge. But he is ready to embrace freedom. Experience parts one and two of the tour-de-force graphic novel series that took Taiwan by storm – parts three and four coming May 2024. P R A I S E ★ “The stupendous achievements here are many: a synergistic literary success; a historic record of twentieth-century Taiwan; the remarkable account of a boy’s life; and a triumph of translation.” —Booklist (starred) “A story of persistence, both hopeful and chilling, and a powerful vision of the personal implications of Taiwan’s mid-century history.” —School Library Journal “Stunning.” —Kirkus
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