A Golden Age
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, 2008.
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, A Golden Age is a gripping novel of revolution, passion and unexpected heroism.
East Pakistan, 1971, a country on the brink of war and a family that is about to change for ever. Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her children in her rose-filled garden.
Beyond the garden walls the city buzzes with excitement over recent elections. But no one could ever imagine what the coming days and months would bring—the fever, the hope, the faith and the heartbreaking choices that everyone must make, including Rehana.
The second book in this brilliant family saga, The Good Muslim, is available now. The final book in the trilogy, The Salt of the Earth, will be published in 2013.
Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her writing has been published in Granta, the New York Times and the Guardian. She is also a contributing editor to the New Statesman.
textpublishing.com.au
‘Anam’s prose is glowing and graceful throughout; whether detailing the degradations of a refugee camp, the tenderness of an unexpected love affair, or the exhilarated dread of a nation in cataclysm.' Guardian
‘Beautifully told, intimate and touching; Anam has a knack for making you care so desperately for her characters that you admire their failings as much as their strengths.’ Daily Mail
‘This is storytelling at its best...A beautiful story of hope, heroism and human survival amid cruelty. Everyone should read this and learn.’ Daily Express
‘I couldn’t tear myself away...the authenticity shines through Anam’s beautiful, simple prose.’ Harper's Bazaar
‘In this striking debut novel...Anam deftly weaves the personal and the political, giving the terrors of war spare, powerful treatment.’ New Yorker
‘A major new talent.’ Observer
‘Tahmima Anam’s startlingly accomplished and gripping novel describes not only the tumult of a great historical event but also the small but heroic struggles of individuals living in the shadow of revolution and war.’ Pankaj Mishra
'The author...is entirely in control of this absorbing book. Her characters are genuine and she cleverly delays resolutions and revelations. The story moves easily between its dual timelines, never confusing the reader but actually contributing to the plot see-sawing balance of country and city, East and West, religious fundamentalism and simple personal faith, bigotry and tolerance, life and death, loyalty and betrayal, love and hate.' Canberra Times
'Another epic novel of the Indian sub-continent, written by a gorgeous and precociously talented young woman...[Anam] writes both lyrically and loudly. Her style is rich with cadence and incantation. At the same time, it's always accessible, always purposeful...A startling and sensuous story.' NZ Herald
‘Movingly poetic…Anam’s great gift is picking illuminating threads out of the chaos of life in masterful prose while maintaining an overwhelming sense of mystery. Superb.’ West Australian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The experiences of a woman drawn into the 1971 Bangladesh war for independence illuminate the conflict's wider resonances in Anam's impressive debut, the first installment in a proposed trilogy. Rehana Haque is a widow and university student in Dhaka with two children, 17-year-old daughter Maya and 19-year-old son Soheil. As she follows the daily patterns of domesticity cooking, visiting the cemetery, marking religious holidays she is only dimly aware of the growing political unrest until Pakistani tanks arrive and the fighting begins. Suddenly, Rehana's family is in peril and her children become involved in the rebellion. The elegantly understated restraint with which Anam recounts ensuing events gives credibility to Rehana's evolution from a devoted mother to a woman who allows her son's guerrilla comrades to bury guns in her backyard and who shelters a Bengali army major after he is wounded. The reader takes the emotional journey from atmospheric scenes of the marketplace to the mayhem of invasion, the ruin of the city, evidence of the rape and torture of Hindus and Bengali nationalists, and the stench and squalor of a refugee camp. Rehana's metamorphosis encapsulates her country's tragedy and makes for an immersive, wrenching narrative.
