For my birthday, I ordered a mystery box from Chapters Books & Gifts, an indie bookstore out of Seward, Nebraska. They tossed a couple of ARCS into the package as a fun little bonus, one being Brinda Charry’s The East Indian (Scribner – pub date 9 May 23). This is an ARC I want the final hardback of. It’s beautiful historical fiction with a POV that has been woefully lacking. In many ways, the voice Charry gives Tony is akin to the voice Lola Jaye gives Dikembe in The Attic Child, a recent read. (If you haven’t read that, check out my review.)
Based on historical records, The East Indian tells the story of Tony, a Tamil boy born in East India to a courtesan mother; his real name is eventually replaced with the more palatable to the English “Tony.” His childhood was beautiful; he was so loved and cherished. When an Englishman with the English East India Company takes up with his mother, he also dotes on the young boy. When Tony’s mother dies, it is Master Day who makes arrangements for him to join another Englishman in London. And so, Tony’s journey begins, and in 1635, as a child, Tony becomes the first East Indian to reach America.
What follows is a heartbreaking tale of a boy with a lost name in a new land. While Tony becomes indentured to a tobacco farmer in Jamestown, he still dreams of becoming a “medicine man” and following in the steps of one of the men rumored to have fathered him. He will serve his time, and then he will make his way home. Tony is resilient, charming, and observant – and the story is told through his POV as he reflects on his life, opening with him recounting the hanging of a witch on the ship to the Virginia colony – and what a life of adventure it is.
Prior to her death, his mother told Tony that she would like to return as a bird. The bird imagery throughout the novel is a quiet triumph of love even after death. Also a triumph is the fragile and sometimes fleeting relationship between the three young boys, Sammy, Tony and Dick, who traveled to the colony together.
With Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play Tony saw at the Globe while in London, as a constant hum that hugs and holds the story tight, The East Indian gives the Indian boy a starring role, not just a fleeting moment. Read this book.
A Girl Named Tommi 