A Golden Age

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I'm going to start right into the next book of this trilogy, The Good Muslim, while the characters are still fresh in my mind. And when, on occasion, she does describe such atrocities, she says only sufficient to allow the reader’s imagination to do the rest. Ultimately, even in the darkness of war there is light, as 'in the midst of all this madness,' Rehana realises, 'I found the world seemed right for the first time in a very long time'.

From all that we see of it in the news over here in Canada, you would think the country is in a perpetual state of flood/disaster/famine. The central character, Rehana Haque, widowed mother of two children, was originally from Lahore in the western half of Pakistan, but has lived in Dhaka, the eastern Bengali capital since her marriage. My Bangladeshi friend in our book group was bothered by what she saw as a lot of inaccuracies about the history and culture.This was not because Rehana wanted to do it for her country, she did the things she did, for her kids. Insa o cercetare mai intensa si o mai mare atentie la detalii ar fi facut o mare diferenta in poveste. Her father, Mahfuz Anam, edits and publishes an English language newspaper, has chaired the Asia news Network, and is actively involved in media and political life in Bangladesh. Rehana grew up in calucutta and then left to west Pakistan after her marriage and her native tongue became Urdu, Rehana does not feel the same sense of nationalism as her children.

It was the last stop after a tour of India and Kashmir, and we had encountered Kashmiri curfews because Pakistan's General Zia had just been killed that day, and Srinigar was taut with fear.Rehana Haque is a woman born in Kolkata, widow of a Pakistani, and mother of Bangladeshi freedom fighters stuck in a war for a country she struggles to identify with. Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age plunges you right into the twin events that form the basis of Rehana's character as a parent, fiercely protective and determined to have them near her.

But after having interviewed more than a hundred survivors of the Bangladesh War for Independence, I realised it was the very small details that always stayed in my mind- the guerilla fighters who exchanged shirts before they went into battle, the women who sewed their best silk saris into blankets for the reugees. Anam grew up in Bangladesh and she has drawn on the stories told her by her parents who were both freedom fighters in Bangladesh’s War of Independence. But as Anam did not have the first hand experience (as she was born and grew up in foreign country) some emotions felt overly done at some point. I don’t think I’ve read a book set in Bangladesh before, but I have read a lot of books focusing on the human cost of conflict, and this one covered some familiar territory, while feeling a bit episodic at times.Dar Rehana isi revine repede, construieste o casa si din inchirierea ei reuseste sa stranga banii necesari sa ii aduca inapoi langa ea.

It was to the West that her two small children had been sent in 1959 after she lost a court appeal to keep them. She grew up listening to the stories of her grandmother harboring freedom fighters and hiding guns and weapons in the family garden. It revolved around one family; a single mother, her son and daughter, and how their life is affected by the war. Liberation war will always be a red mark in the history of Bangladesh and as a proud Bangladeshi It always warms my heart seeing people all around the world reading and knowing about us, and "A Golden Age" opens a window for them to take a peek at our Glorious history, history of suffer, anguish, history of social, economic and political repression, history of bravery of our war heros and a golden triumphant, a country of our own!The junta annulled the results of the 1970 elections and arrested Prime Minister-elect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. And then I saw the brown dirty waters, gray skies and tense worried faces that were such a familiar sight on the newscasts. The Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh, was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan and the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. Throughout the novel you will not be able to differentiate the seasons, day or night, morning and noon, afternoon and evening. This, her debut novel, is set in 1971 in East Pakistan, where Rehana Haque, a young widow, is throwing a party.