Queen of Black Square

From the mind and musings of author Alex Liu – comes Queen of Black Square – an introspective look at life in the modern age.

All insects are kind of degenerate," I said to my lab manager, Brant, the tall and soft-spoken son of a marine; he was wearing a shirt printed with a fruit fly that had one of its eyes growing on an antenna.

“That is the quote of the year,” said Katie in a British accent in her field biology chic dress.

“No, that is not true, some insects are interesting,” Brant said.

“I like lightning bugs,” I said.

“There are storm bugs in the UK,” Katie said. She said London was her home, but we were all in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she shook her head when the lab asked if she was going to stay.

A painted wooden ladybug toy was played with by Hopi's child at her house when she threw a party for us, which included a Bangladeshi who eyed me and told me that genes are only expressed in some people after I said I was Canadian yellow.

In Queen of Black Square, Alex Liu gives a true account—through Harvard, where he graduated summa—about the hedge fund Citadel, where he worked with an English aristocrat, and Columbia U. while he was in the midst of soul fever.

“Be a lion” is what a Persian friend from Dixie told Alex.

“Sounds like you had an interesting ride” is what a former colleague at the private equity firm MidOcean told him.