Why do you recommend A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam?
While Days of 1971 is the recollections of a mother, this is a different generation writing about the Liberation War. Tahmima based her book on the memories of her grandparents. She also paints a bigger picture of 1947 and how we were separated again and again. The main character is a Pakistani woman living in Bangladesh, and she sided with Bangladesh during the war. This was a very emotional decision. She is an amazing character but you would find many others like her in real life – there were many cases of Pakistanis siding with Bangladesh. And there were many families with a Pakistani father and a Bengali mother, or vice-versa. It was a very complicated and intertwined thing and Tahmima portrayed these feelings masterfully. It is a story of divided hearts. When this book was published it sent ripples throughout Bangladesh. It is now very popular across the globe.
