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A Golden Age: A Novelby Tahmima Anam |
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As young widow Rehana Haque awakes one March morning, she might be forgiven for feeling happy. Today she will throw a party for her son and daughter. In the garden of the house she has built, her roses are blooming, her children are almost grown, and beyond their doorstep, the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. Change is in the air.
But none of the guests at Rehana's party can foresee what will happen in the days and months ahead. For this is 1971 in East Pakistan, a country on the brink of war. And this family's life is about to change forever.
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, A Golden Age is a story of passion and revolution, of hope, faith and unexpected heroism. In the chaos of this era, everyone?from student protesters to the country's leaders, from rickshaw'wallahs to the army's soldiers?must make choices. And as she struggles to keep her family safe, Rehana will be forced to face a heartbreaking dilemma.
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Luminous and poignant; a wonderful novel! -  |
A Golden Age: A Novel Review |
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Set mainly in the 1970s against the backdrop of Bangladesh's Liberation War. Tahmina Anam's luminous debut novel is the story of Rehana Haque who is as a recent widow is left with little family or financial support and loses her children to their father's family. Rehana tries desperately to improve her financial situation to get her children back. However Rehana lives continuously with the guilt of this loss, even after the children are recovered. Women everywhere can identify with Rehana's love of her country, her struggle to keep her children safe despite tremendous odds and their struggles during wartime and choices they are forced to make.
For this meticulously researched novel, Bangladesh-born, American-educationed, Tahmima Anam was inspired by her parents who were freedom fighters during the war. For the benefit of her research, she stayed in Bangladesh for two years and interviewed hundreds of war fighters. This all shows as the background for this poignant story adds to its emotional impact for a riveting read that will stay with the reader a long time after the last page is turned. Highly recommended. |
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Wonderful view of colonial Sri Lanka! - |
A Golden Age: A Novel Review |
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Having visited Sri Lanka several years ago, I found this book fascinating, funny and informative about the different people that have made their home there in the last several hundred years. The characters are deeply etched with humor and affection. Really good read. |
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Keeping Family Together In A War Torn Country -  |
A Golden Age: A Novel Review |
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"A Golden Age" is a novel by Tahmima Anam, which is about Rehana Haque, a woman who became a widow at a young age, and who is finishing raising her two children in East Pakistan as the events leading up to the Bangladesh War of Independence approach. Dr. Anam effectively counters the difficulties of the family with those experienced in East Pakistan during that period in time.
The prologue is set in March of 1959, as Rehana writes to her dead husband (Iqbal) of how she has lost their children to his brother and his wife in Lahore (West Pakistan). Rehana is resolved to get her children back, and this short prologue is very effective in covering key memories and events through its non-linear telling. The secret of how Rehana managed to get the money is not revealed at this time. The novel them jumps to March of 1971 on the anniversary of the day when she got her children back. On this day, she throws a party to celebrate that anniversary, and Tahmima Anam does an effective job of introducing key characters as well as telling the story of how Rehana was able to get her children back. The politics are also brought into the story through conversation at the party, and then the postponement of the assembly and the denial of the office of Prime Minister to Sheikh Mujib. Both Rehana's son Sohail, and daughter Maya are both strong supporters of the independence movement, but Rehana is more concerned about her family than politics. The war then comes with the attack on Dhaka, and the lives of Rehana and her family and friends are forever changed. Everything is being pulled apart by the events in the country. Sohail is drawn towards joining the revolution, while Maya also works to support it in Dhaka. Rehana starts to realize that she will need to choose sides if she wants to keep her family together, at least in spirit. As the story proceeds, Rehana finds herself becoming a supporter of the independence movement. She takes in a wanted injured man who has saved her son's life and help nurse him back to health, she allows the burial of items the independence needs in her yard. On a personal note, she is forced to go to ask for a captured man's freedom from her brother-in-law, the same one who had taken her children away from her so many years ago. Rehana is forced to move to Calcutta, the city of her birth, to see Maya who has started writing articles in support of independence and attacking the actions of West Pakistan. There she become involved in helping out at the refugee camp, where she finds one of her friends, Mrs. Sengupta, in a horrible state and who has apparently lost her husband and her son. There is a certain type of symmetry to the story. We learn how the first man she loved nearly cost Rehana her kids and how she had to do whatever she could to get them back, but in this story she has to let her children go in order to keep them. It is also the second man whom she loved, even if for such a brief moment, who ultimately helps her keep her children. This story works, because of the effective use of the backdrop of the war for Bangladesh's independence. The characters and situations are believable, and the story telling is well done. Perhaps the best thing about the story is that no character is portrayed as perfect, nor are any of the significant characters viewed as without any humanity. This is a very good debut novel, and it will be interesting to see how Tahmima Anam follows this one up. From the information on the back of the book, "A Golden Age" is meant as one of a trilogy of books, and one can only hope that the high standards set with this one are maintained in the novels to come. |
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Highly recommended - |
A Golden Age: A Novel Review |
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This is the best novel I've read in a long time. The prose is beautiful and fresh, the story compelling from beginning to end. I am truly glad to have found it, and eager to read more from Ms. Anam. |
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Terrific Debut Novel from Talented New Writer - |
A Golden Age: A Novel Review |
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Tahmima Anam's lovely, harrowing first novel charts the emotional journey of one family as they live through Pakistan's war of independence. The main character, Rehana, is a mother who loses her children early on, regains them, and spends her life atoning for the sin she feels she committed to get them back. Mother-love has rarely had such a heartfelt advocate. Set against the brutal fight to create the nation of Bangladesh out of the ire of Pakistan and India in the 1970's, The Golden Age does for this harrowing conflict what Pearl S. Buck's later novels did for the cultural revolution in China - gives it a deeply felt human face. |
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