The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, an increasingly valued and sought-after award for fiction, is presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation. The Prize aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their work to a global audience.

On recieving the award, and a prize of £5000, Tahmima said:

“I’m honoured and humbled to be the first ever Bangladeshi winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. I wrote A Golden Age because I wanted the story of the Bangladesh war to reach an international audience. It is a story of great tragedy, but also represents a moment of hope and possibility for my sometimes troubled country”.

It was back 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.

The Golden Age is a compelling debut novel. It tells the story of Rehana Haque. The novel begins in spring 1971 in East Pakistan, and the country is on the brink of a revolution. Rehana 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.

Speaking on behalf of the pan-Commonwealth panel, its Chair, the Hon Justice Nicholas Hasluck praised The Golden Age:

“This is the first major fictional account in English of the creation of Bangladesh. Housewife, widow, and mother, Rehana Haque, exemplifies the power of the individual to resist and ultimately prevail against the ravages of war. The assured and lyrical prose evokes the tumultuous birthing of a new nation in an intensely personal family narrative.”

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 currently a contributing editor at The New Statesman.

In December of 1970, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s party, the Awami League, wins elections in Pakistan with a clear majority. However, the victory of Awami League, a major political party in East Pakistan, is not acceptable to those in West Pakistan.

There is widespread opposition in the Pakistani military and the Islamic political parties to Mujibur becoming Pakistan’s prime minister. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, leader of Pakistan People’s Party, the largest West Pakistani party at that time, even threatens to boycott the assembly if Mujibur is allowed to form the new government.

As the rift between leaders of East and West Pakistan widens, Mujibur calls for independence of East Pakistan and asks the people to launch civil disobedience campaigns against the West Pakistani regime which had always treated them as third-class citizens. The people of East Pakistan, who were infuriated by the central government’s treatment of the devastating November’s cyclone victims, readily join in.

Following this, then Pakistani president Yahya Khan bans the Awami League, declares martial law and orders the army to arrest Mujibur and other East Pakistani leaders and activists. The ruthless decision, however, forces Mujibur to declare independence of East Pakistan at midnight on March 26, 1971, giving birth to Bangladesh.

Mujibur is later arrested and sent to prison in the West. But this does not quell the tension and the army can do nothing to stop the people, who by that time were determined to liberate Bangladesh from the hands of the authoritarian West Pakistani regime.

Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam’s debut novel, A Golden Age, finds its root in this tensed environment, where West Pakistan’s so-called attempt to restore order in Bangladesh results in terror and bloodshed. It is a story of a country at war, where chaos is the order of the day and disappearance and murder of people become everyday affair.

Amidst this situation, Rehana Haque, a widowed mother of two, finds it increasingly difficult to protect her children. Like every mother she has selfish love for them and since she had once been separated from them after her husband’s death she does not want to repeat the same ordeal.

But the war’s intensity is so great, no one can easily isolate or escape from it. As some of the characters of the novel put it: “Everyone is fighting—even people who weren’t so sure, people who wanted to stay with Pakistan.”

Then finally one day, Rehana’s eldest son, Sohail, comes home and says he has joined a clandestine guerilla operation launched by university students.

At first Rehana finds it hard to believe him. Yes, he was the revolutionary type who had posters of Lenin and Che Guevara on his room’s walls. He also recited speeches like ‘Peking or Moscow? Third World Socialism’ and ‘Jinnah: Statesman or Imperialist Demagogue?’ in college. But Rehana never thought her son would go this far. After all, she had always known him as a pacifist, someone who would not rush to join a war.

In this, as in all other things, Rehana tries to veer between “indulgence and censure”. “There was a part of her that wanted to allow her children to do anything—any whimsy, any zeal, any excess,” the author explains. “Another part of her wanted them to have nothing to do with it all, to keep them safe, at home.”

Rehana chooses the former and allows Sohail to go to war. In the meantime, her daughter, Maya, who had also joined the revolution, moves to Kolkata in India to work for a newspaper, which was supporting the Bangladeshi independence movement.

At this juncture, Rehana finds herself all alone in the house. Instead of Sohail and Maya, she starts living with talks about whereabouts of Mujibur and Anwar Sadaat and uproar, in the city or beyond, in Islamabad, where one punishing law after another was passed. “And every hiccup of the political landscape made its way to their door,” Tahmima writes.

A Golden Age is a story about a mother trying to keep her family intact during war. It is about the contribution made by a liberal middle-class Muslim family—living in harmony with Hindus—in liberating Bangladesh from the hands of Pakistan. It is a story about curfew sirens, empty streets, closed shops, locked gates, a burned and blistered city. At the same time it is also a story about courage and sacrifices, where mothers lose their children, wives mourn the death of their husbands and friends bury their fellow companions.

However, to give a light flavour to the gripping story the writer also talks about the love life of central character, Rehana, with a former army major who stays in her house for 96 days to recuperate from a major injury. She also talks about delicious foods like, paratha, samosa and puri and old Hindi as well as some English songs to give a breezy touch.

Tahmima’s style is sure and sharp, studded with illuminating images. She has not gone to the extent of over-explaining her characters and the novel’s plot is not monotonous.

Try the novel and you will have a sound knowledge on how Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in the 1970s. The book will also give you an insight into the strong ties that Bangladeshi family members maintain that provide them support in times of trouble. Moverover, it also gives you a bird’s eye view of Bangladeshi culture, their idea of merrymaking and their fondness for food.

Qui d'entre nous n'a pas refermé un livre en pensant: "encore, j'en redemande." Malheureusement, les auteurs ne produisent pas au rythme qu'on le voudrait. J'écris "produisent" parce qu'une fois un auteur ayant publié et nous affreux lecteurs ayant aimé, nous nous attendons à ce qu'il ou elle produise, comme son éditeur d'ailleurs. Dans un monde de l'édition où les élus sont rares, il devient difficile de faire un choix devant une série de titres en librairie.

J'ai découvert une préférence pour les auteurs d'origine sud-asiatique et ce depuis la lecture dans les années 80 de Midnight's Children (Les enfants de minuit) de Salman Rushdie. Ce roman relate les événements de l'après partition de l'Inde. Saleem, le narrateur, est né au moment de la partition et de l'indépendance de l'Inde. Soit à minuit le 15 août 1947. Seulement, voilà un autre enfant nait en même temps que Saleem, Shiva. Les deux sont accidentellement interchangés lors de leur premiers jours de vie. Mille et un enfants naissent ce jour là entre minuit et une heure du matin. Ils possèdent tous un don et Saleem celui de la télépathie qui lui donne le pouvoir de convoquer mentalement ces "frères et soeurs" que la nouvelle réalité du 15 août 1947 impose et Shiva qui tente de s'imposer à travers la tête de Saleem. Surréel, ce roman a plongé la lectrice que je suis dans un monde égal à l'Inde avec ses contradictions, son génie, son mouvement perpétuel. Midnight's Children, reste à mon avis le meilleur livre de Rushdie car sa narration est superbe, hors du commun, toujours là à surprendre et le style que dire du style. Simply precious. A lire et relire.

J'ai découvert Jours de pluie à Madras de Samina Ali. Jeune fille partageant sa vie entre les US of A où elle réside et Hyderabad (Inde) où ses parents l'envoient passer des vacances pour ne pas être victime d'acculturation, Layla accepte d'épouser un homme qu'elle ne connait pas. Juste avant les noces, son comportement inexplicable (en fait, elle a tenté d'avorter et saigne continuellement) plonge sa mère dans un tel désarroi qu'elle décide d'emmener sa fille voir un Alim soufi qui essaie de la convaincre de retarder le mariage et leur apprend par la même occasion que le futur marié claudique d'une jambe, jambe cassée que la mère a refusé de soigner préférant les soins du Alim. Malgré tout, le mariage a lieu. Nuit de noces ratée, le couple tente tant bien que mal de laisser le passé de Layla derrière eux. Layla s'installe chez sa belle-famille qui l'adore et au moment où une complicité réelle s'installe entre les deux, Layla découvre la vie cachée de Samir. Un roman dense où apparaissent, encore une fois, en filigrane les tensions interreligieuses de l'Inde multiconfessionnelle, les pressions familiales, la lourdeur des traditions et les secrets qui finissent par miner le vécu.

Et j'ai été subjuguée par la narration et le style de Tahmima Anam dans son premier roman A Golden Age qui raconte les événements qui conduisirent à la "partition du Pakistan" et à la naissance du Bengladesh. Rehana Haque voit sa vie bouleversée à la mort de son époux. Elle est obligée de voir ses enfants partir vivre avec son beau-frère au Pakistan sur ordre du juge. Elle fait tout pour parvenir à récupérer ses enfants et y parvient. Rehana personnifie ce Pakistan de l'est, membre pauvre de la famille, oublié et laissé aux intempéries climatiques. Puis vinrent les années 70 et la colère de la population contre le régime de Zulfikar Ali Bhutto et ce lointain Pakistan. Avec un talent bien certain Tahmina nous ouvre une page de l'histoire de Bengladesh à l'époque où Mujib et son parti gagnent la majorité des sièges au parlement et menacent ainsi l'establishment politique qui n'a rien fait pour justement établir une équité entre Pakistanais de l'ouest et Pakistanais de l'est. Le gouvernement pakistanais décide d'envoyer l'armée mater la population qui demande seulement que l'on reconnaisse la victoire du parti de Mujib. S'ensuivit une guerre civile, des massacres, une population hindoue qui regagnera l'Inde, un gouvernement en exil à Calcutta et finalement l'aide militaire de Delhi qui sera décisive dans la bataille et forcera la défaite du Pakistan. Ainsi naitra le Bengladesh. Tout une histoire vue par les yeux d'une femme qui découvre que même si elle parle urdu elle appartient à cette terre qu'elle habite et non celle qui lui a enlevé ses enfants et maintient le joug sur la population. Rehana que les épreuves forgent, réalise qu'elle ne peut rester sans rien faire et s'investit dans cette lutte qu'elle ne comprenait pas ou du moins refusait de comprendre pour ne pas voir ses enfants rejoindre la cause indépendantiste du Bengladesh. C'est aussi l'histoire de l'éveil charnel quand elle est obligée de cacher un officier indépendantiste. Bref, magnifique premier roman à lire.

Ne pouvant patienter pour la sortie du DVD Persépolis de Marjane Satrapi, j'ai acheté les quatre volumes et ai lu avec avidité les quatre tomes. Bien plus cher que le DVD, mais caresser, feuilleter un livre est un plaisir rarement inégalé.

Dans les prochains billets, il sera question de Khaled Hossaini, écrivain d'origine afghane auteur de The Kite Runner et A Thousand Splendid Nights ainsi que de la différence colossale entre deux mondes différents à savoir l'édition francophone et anglophone.

Et pour finir en beauté, je vais vous avouer que je considère la plus belle histoire d'amour celle écrite par le grand, l'unique Gabriel Garcia Marquez à savoir Love In The Time Of Cholera (L'amour aux temps du choléra). Parce qu'en dehors de l'Asie du Sud-Est, je vibre pour Gabriel Garcia Marquez et Jorge Luis Borges.

Et vous, quelles plumes vont vous font vibrer?

A friend gave me a copy of A Golden Age, by Tahmima Anam, as a present a couple of months ago, and I finally got around to reading it this week. A Golden Age, it turns out, is a very strong first novel, written in a direct, natural style, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Amitav Kumar quotes Siddharth Chowdhury's three commandments for young writers:

‘Writing Fiction is not for the faint-hearted. The mortality rate is higher than that of Test pilots.’

...

‘Talent is a good start.’

...

‘Never listen to older writers.’

Take a look!

Last night was HarperCollins’s official launch of Anam’s novel, “A Golden Age,” at one of the “This is Not a Reading Series” events put on by Pages Books at the Gladstone Hotel ballroom. And “event,” once again, is the best word to describe it. As CBC reporter Aparita Bhandari remarked, when she and Anam settled into the wooden “thrones” on the stage, with elaborately draped silks serving as a backdrop, and floating candles set in several jewel-coloured vases around them, the setting felt more like they were about to experience a Bangladeshi wedding, rather than an interview about a book.

The luxurious stage, designed by Dream Party Décor, wasn’t the only mood-setter for the interview: dhol drummer and electro tabla artist ConTEJus played a set to begin the evening, creating melodic hints of a Bangladeshi atmosphere that resonated through the two women’s discussion.

Tahmima Anam is bright, intelligent, well-educated – and very funny. When an audience member asked how she grappled with her class privilege, she acknowledged that as one of the few educated people from a very poor country, she has great responsibility, “as Spider Man said.” Although she has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard, she quipped that “grad school is a way to pretend you’re doing something while you figure out what you really want to do.” 

In her case, of course, graduate school really did work out that way, although that wasn’t her original plan. She had grown up in a very cosmopolitan family, her father being a diplomat with the United Nations, stationed over the years in many different places around the world. Discussions at meal time revolved around articles each family member had found in the papers that day, which they brought to dinner to share with the others. So these discussions, including stories about the war which had created her country, gave Anam a very adult outlook on the world, at a very young age.

But it was while she was doing an oral history project for her PhD, and went to Bangladesh for the field work, that she talked to many people who had participated in and survived the war of independence. She began to think, “What a shame for me to write an academic book that maybe five people would read.” And so her novel was born, as she attempted to bring the war experience to life by digging into her own family history for stories. She reasoned that fiction can transport readers to other times and places in ways that academic writing does not.

When asked why she didn’t become a journalist instead, and follow in the footsteps of her father when he left the U.N. and founded a newspaper in Bangladesh, Anam joked that journalists “have deadlines, have to verify sources, and tell some semblance of the truth.” Yet she is politically active, and does in fact do journalistic work as well. For example, since she now lives in the U.K., she is occasionally asked to write about Bangladesh for the British press, “whenever something terrible happens.” As part of the responsibility she carries as an educated Bangladeshi, she believes she must act as a spokesperson for her country to the rest of the world, extolling its accomplishments and virtues, in balance with the frequently negative facts that are usually emphasized.

But for the moment, her main way of doing that will be via her novels, of which “A Golden Age” is only the first of three. Anam believes that the job of a novelist is to humanize problems, so they become more real through their characters’ experience, and less factually dry. She cited global climate change as one example that pertained especially to Bangladesh. Hearing about climate change through the experience of characters in a novel might have more impact on readers than if facts were presented in a more academic way.

After attending last night’s event, do I want to read Tamima Anam’s book? I am not always comfortable about novels set in times of war, but Anam is so articulate, so knowledgeable and empathetic, and above all, so enthusiastic about this story and the potential hope it offers, that I think I really would like to read her book.

The City of Dreaming Booksby Walter Moers, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy, A Golden Ageby Tahmima Anam, The Deluxe Transitive Vampire by Karen Elizabeth George, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Click by Park, Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories.

Last evening I had friends and neighbors over, and I always find it fascinating to see which books attract which person. It ranged from pretentious to delightful, which all in all made it a pleasant evening. Starting on the sixth of this month I am also going to be spending a great deal of time learning Spanish, which means that my amount of reading time will be slipping away. Over the last few months I have practically allowed myself to gorge myself on books, but I have other things vying for my attention now.

"Dear Husband,
I lost our children today."

Despite the bountiful amount of advanced reading copies (ARC) available to me, I seldom actually readthem. Pick them up and hoarde them like a dragon with treasure: yes, but to actually readthem is a different matter. This is in part a result of the lousy selection I usually have available. However, a few weeks ago the beautiful cover of Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age peaked out at me from the shelf, and I not only took it home but I read it too.

A Golden Age is the first novel in a three part series of the Haque family. Set in East Pakistan in 1971, Anam delivers a sensational and moving story that takes the family through the Bangladesh War of Independence. Rehana, the mother, is originally from Calcutta but finds herself swept up in the politics of the country when her son Sohail and her daughter Maya become involved in the resistance. As a result of the story's point of view (Rehana's) and Anam's phenomenal writing this is unlike many other war stories. Rehana is a mother who will sacrifice anything for her children and the story is told through the tender voice and hand of a very passionate woman.

I am very excited about this book. I am not if I can put it any other way. Many of the recent releases I have read leave me indifferent or unsatisifed. But Anam has delivered an emotional and political tale of family life that is both moving and absorbing. This is only the first book in a trilogy, but I will say that the A Golden Age could end at the close of the Bangladesh War of Independence and leave the reader pleased. It will be interesting to see where Anam takes her characters and story in the following books.

My only frustration with the book: all of Anam's descriptions of delicious and spicey foods left my mouth watering. A Golden Age is already released in some places outside of the United States, but here it is marked to come out some time between December and January. Definitely keep your eye out if you are looking for a terrific read as this was one book I could not put down.

Also reviewed by A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...