Cecily Alcantara

Cecily Alcantara is one of the main characters of the novel. The chapters titled with Cecily’s first name are limited to Cecily’s point of view and present sequences from her storyline.

Cecily is married to Gordon Alcantara, with whom she has three children, Abel, Jujube, and Jasmin. When Abel is 15 years old, he disappears. Cecily becomes convinced that her son’s disappearance is a direct result of her association with the Japanese general Fujiwara 10 years prior.

In 1934, Fujiwara recruited Cecily to be his informant. Although many in Bintang did not support the Japanese, Cecily was inspired by Fujiwara’s “dream of an Asia for Asians, a world in which white men didn’t always win” (24). She hoped that working with Fujiwara would bring his goals to fruition, and thus alter her life and country for good. The more time she spent working for Fujiwara, the...