A Golden Age

Starred review from September 17, 2007
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.

October 15, 2007
Mother love is at the heart of this impressive first novel by the Bangladeshi-born, American-educated Anam. Protagonist Rehana Haque has long regretted the time after the early death of her husband, when she allowed a relative to take away her son and daughter for a year. During the 1971 war for Bangladesh's independence, she finds an opportunity for redemption. Readers follow an involving thread about the ragtag, grassroots campaign to escape the oppressive Pakistani regime, though the narrative as a whole stays close to Rehana, as she worries about the dangers facing her young adult children, who dive into the struggle. The Bangladeshi forces are successful, but at a great cost. The climax involving a sacrificial choice Rehana must make is gripping and moving. Though touted as the first novel written in English about the Bangladesh war, the novel echoes Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss" and Anita Desai's "Clear Light of Day", which let readers experience political upheaval on the Indian subcontinent through powerful family drama. Recommended for all libraries.Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2007
First-time novelist Anam writes with a naturalness born not only of innate literary talent but also of intimate knowledge of the subject at hand, in this case, the psychological fallout of Bangladeshs brutal War for Independence from Pakistan in 1971. Drawing on her conversations with Bangladeshis who survived the horrific conflict, Anam has created a family drama that serves as a microcosm for a seismic struggle little understood and quickly forgotten in the West. Resourceful widow Rehana has always been utterly devoted to her smart and brooding son and daughter. Now college-age Sohail and Maya are deeply involved in the battle for a Bengali state, and Rehana ends up supporting the freedom fighters at great personal risk. Amid tyranny, religious prejudice, torture, attempted genocide, and daring guerrilla maneuvers, Anam creates sparkling, suspenseful, and lacerating tragicomedy informed by penetrating insights into mother love and courage, and the way life goes on in spite of war and chaos. Similar in its freshness and moral complexity to Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies potent novel about Biafra, but unique in its wonderful tenderness and wit, Anams affecting debut marks the arrival of a significant new voice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

January 28, 2008
Anam's account of a widow living in East Pakistan in the early 1970s just as the country erupts into war is a moving tale that narrator Madhur Jaffrey manages to connect with on a very personal level. Aside from a brief musical intro that helps to capture central character Rehana Haque's sheer joy upon awakening one sunny morning, the reading is an interpersonal experience. Jaffrey's grainy British accent takes on a hint of the rolling Pakistani dialect, with her pronunciation pitch perfect and realistic. Jaffrey seems legitimately attached to the story, as she captures the melancholy that Haque cannot avoid throughout the story. Her performance enhances characters that are already textured and rich with personality. There is a certain loneliness in Jaffrey's omniscient narrator, a characteristic that allows the listener to paint a clear and vivid portrait of a fantastic journey that is as heartbreaking as it is inspiring Simultaneous release with the Harper hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 17).