Tahmima Anam of Bangladesh wins the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Overall Best First Book for A Golden Age

by Priyo Australia | May 19, 2008 4:11 am

Best First Book Winner – A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (John Murray)

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and raised in Paris, New York City, and Bangkok. She comes from a family of writers: her grandfather was a famous political satirist, and her father is the editor of Bangladesh’s largest-circulating English daily newspaper. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College, where she studied with UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. Tahmima’s writing has been published in Granta magazine, The Guardian, and The New York Times. She is a currently a contributing editor at The New Statesman. Her website is www.tahmima.com.

In 2001, Tahmima began research on the Bangladesh War of Independence and started work on A Golden Age. She travelled throughout Bangladesh, interviewing ex-freedom fighters, military officers, students, and survivors of the 1971 war. The novel is a fictionalised account of these war stories, combined with her own family history. In 2005, she received a grant from The Arts Council to complete the novel.

It is spring 1971 in East Pakistan and the country is on the brink of a revolution. Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her children, Sohail and Maya, in the rose-filled garden of the house she has built, while beyond her doorstep the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. None of the guests at Rehana’s party can foresee what will happen in the days and months that follow, and her family’s life is about to change forever.

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