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A Golden Age

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 1,222 ratings · 273 reviews

As young widow Rehana Haque awakes one March morning, she might be forgiven for feeling happy. Her children are almost grown, the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. Change is in the air.

But no one can foresee what will happen in the days and months that follow. For this is East Pakistan in 1971, a country on the brink of war. And this family's life is...more

Hardcover, 276 pages

Published 2007 by John Murray (Publishers)

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Jun 19, 2008 Margot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Oh, how I love to get my facts of the world from historical fiction! I just can't get enough of it, especially when it's about something I know nothing about, like the 1971 Bangladeshi struggle for independence from Pakistan. A little bit of culture, a little bit of politics, a little bit of betrayal and the dark side of human desire, a little bit of the horrors of war and torture, and a lot of family loyalty. This is one great read. Oh yeah baby!

10 likes · like · see review

Mar 11, 2009 Jeanette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, asia, indian-subcontinent-and-surrounding, historical-fiction, five-star-fiction

Truly a pleasure to read. I looked forward to my time with it every day. I could smell the greasy food, feel the oppressive heat, hear the endlessly cascading rain, and see the red and white flowers Rehana grows in her garden.

The story takes place during the nine-month-long Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. Widow Rehana Haque's daughter Maya and son Sohail are teenagers, both heavily involved in the resistance efforts against West Pakistan. When her children were small and she first becam...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: india, subcontinent

Until the end of 1971, Bangladesh, inhabited mainly by Bengalis, was known as ‘East Pakistan’. West Pakistan, now all that remains of Pakistan is, and was inhabited by a Punjabi majority. In 1970, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (‘Mujib’,a Bengali) and his party won the parliamentary elections. Mujib was prevented from taking office by President General Yahya Khan, of West Pakistan, who along with many of his fellow Punjabis and Pathans held the Bengalis in low regard. He arrested Mujib in early 1971 and...more Until the end of 1971, Bangladesh, inhabited mainly by Bengalis, was known as ‘East Pakistan’. West Pakistan, now all that remains of Pakistan is, and was inhabited by a Punjabi majority. In 1970, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (‘Mujib’,a Bengali) and his party won the parliamentary elections. Mujib was prevented from taking office by President General Yahya Khan, of West Pakistan, who along with many of his fellow Punjabis and Pathans held the Bengalis in low regard. He arrested Mujib in early 1971 and launched a vicious military assault on East Pakistan. Its aim was to decimate the Bengali population. During this operation, about a million East Pakistanis fled to neighbouring India and anything between 30,000 and 3,000,000 East Pakistanis were massacred. Had it not been for the intervention of Indian armed forces, many more would have been killed. By the end of 1971, Yahya’s forces were defeated; Mujib was released, and soon after this East Pakistan divorced itself from West Pakistan and the republic of Bangladesh was born.

Tahmima Anam, the author of A Golden Age was born in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, 4 years after the end of the Bangaldeshi’s struggle against Yahya Khan's forces of West Pakistan. Yet, her novel which is set mainly in Dhaka during 1971 gave me the feeling that she had been an eye-witness of those troubled times.

The main character in the book is the widowed Rehana, a non-Bengali who lives in Dhaka. Both of her children become involved in the struggle against Yahya’s forces. She tries to maintain her home as things gradually deteriorate all around her and her children become ever more deeply embroiled in the resistance to the murderous thugs (including her brother-in-law whose home was in West Pakistan), who had invaded their country. At first, I was lulled into thinking that Rehana was an innocent in a sea of turmoil, but as the tale unwinds, I learned that she also harboured secrets, some of which had nothing to do with the invasion of Yahya’s forces.

The novel is beautifully written. Ms Anam gently creates the atmosphere of terror that was developing in Dhaka by subtle allusions to it. She resists the temptation to dwell on graphic descriptions of the atrocities performed by Yahya’s forces to suppress the Bengalis in order to ‘restore order’. And when, on occasion, she does describe such atrocities, she says only sufficient to allow the reader’s imagination to do the rest.

A Golden Age is laced with transliterations of Bangla and Urdu words, which will be understood by those familiar with the sub-continent, but may puzzle readers who are not. There is no glossary because Ms Anam follows in the footsteps of Salman Rushdie, who led the way, according to what my wife learnt from a conversation with the author Shashi Deshpande, in dispensing with such things. However, the inclusion of unexplained vernacular terms does not detract from the enjoyment of a book, which I can strongly recommend, nor its comprehensibility. (less)

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Dec 17, 2012 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2008

This story about the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan takes place from very shortly before the civil war (with a completely unnecessary prologue set 20 years before) until the day before the war is over. It is the story of a family, of a mother who had given up her children (but not really) and of her children's political activities for their blossoming country.

While this is a beautiful setup, and there are some very striking scenes, it is sadly not because of the book that they are striki...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Peg rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all

A book recommended to me because a friend of my son-in-law dated the author. Terrific story, beautifully written. The story of the war in East Pakistan in 1971 is presented through the story of a family - that of Rehana Haque and her two children. From book jacket: ".. story of passion and revolution, of hope, faith and unexpected heroism. As she struggles to keep her family safe, Rehana will be forced to face a heartbreaking dilemma." The dilemma and its outcome are reminiscent of The Tale of t...more

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Jan 23, 2008 Naureen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A poignant exploration of how war and conflict impact a single family. In Rehana Anam has captured the personal conflicts and agnonies of war not reflected in the movies or books representing the heroic soldier or the vulnerable victim. Rather, Rehana experiences a war that she neither requested nor participated in, though called upon to make the greatest sacrifices a mother might be asked to make - contributing her children to a cause THEY hold dear. Her own evolution is touching and evocative....more

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May 15, 2008 Joanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Tahmima was one of Jessica's housemates, so I met her occasionally, and when Jessica gave me this book, I thought how nice of her it was to buy her friend's book. I didn't expect to like it so much! I will have more faith next time.

It's a great story about a widow and mother who's caught up in Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, which I knew absolutely nothing about. So it's both a beautifully written story about a mother trying to keep her college-age children safe and a his...more

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Jan 18, 2008 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like Indian writers

Recommended to Amy by: booksense pick

Shelves: 2008, worldly, general-fiction, mother-india

I judged a book by the (beautiful) cover and boy, am I glad I did! This is an excellent first book by Bangladeshi born writer Tahmima Anam. Anam delivers a powerful story about Rehana and her young adult children trying to survive during the liberation war fought against Pakistan. Anam does a good job capturing the strong bond between mother and child as she becomes as involved in the liberation of Bangladesh as her children. This story is very moving and has a surprise ending. It is the first i...more

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Aug 05, 2007 sanjana rated it 2 of 5 stars

The book was a good english-language introduction to the Bangladesh war of independence of 1971, esp for those of us who grew up with only a shadowy understanding of what happened. I'm not sure how correct of the facts/chronology of the book. I gave it to my dad - since he was the same age as the characters at the time - who, while reading, would put it down every couple of minutes to explain how "things really happened." As a novel, though, the plot development was rather lacking - the characte...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

The particulars of the conflict between Pakistan and Bangladesh are not familiar to many of us in America. To make this new ground palatable, Anam deftly filters the big picture through the personal experiences and impossible choices of her characters. We instinctively understand the indelible and intimate impact of passionate revolt on the quotidian; we smell the fetid air of the refugee camp, where the best shelter for one's family is found inside a construction pipe, while at the same time we...more

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Nov 23, 2007 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although this novel is getting a fair amount of buzz, I found it to be pretty mediocre. Rehana Haque, a young widow with two teenage children, finds herself caught in the Bangladesh War of Independence in the beginning on 1971. Both of her politically active children are involved in the resistance. The setting is interesting and the writing is not bad, but there is little character development; they seemed rather one dimensional. I found myself caring very little what happened to these character...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Rajeev Roshan rated it 5 of 5 stars

समीक्षा -

पुस्तक - A golden Age
लेखिका - तहमीमा अनाम

तीन बार मेरे साथ ऐसा हो चूका है की जब में किसी काम से जा रहा होता हूँ मुझे रास्ते में फूटपाथ पर किताब की दूकान नज़र आती है और एक मैं एक पुस्तक उठा लेता हूँ और वह पुस्तक पढने के बाद एक शानदार पुस्तक बन जाती है।
पहली बार - द वाइट टाइगर (अरविन्द अडिगा)
दूसरी बार - वर्जिल एंड बीट्राइस (यान मार्टेल)
तीसरी बार - अ गोल्डन ऐज (तहमीमा अनाम )

मैं आज आप लोगो के साथ "अ गोल्डन ऐज" की समीक्षा और अपना अनुभव साझा करूंगा जो इस पुस्तक द्वारा मिला।

देश - धर्म- कर्त्त...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Marsha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-fiction

At first this novel comes off as a trifle cold. So caught up is Rehana in her grief for her dead husband, we hardly feel that she sufferes from losing her children, especially since she barely puts up a fight for them. But, gradually, we are drawn into her struggle to protect them, from poverty, pain, loss and the savagery of war. Rehana is forced out of her protective shell in which she visits her husband’s grave with unseemly obsession to a wider sympathy about the world around her, about the...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Violet Crush rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own

In 1947, after Independence from the British, India was partitioned into India and Pakistan (east and West). East Pakistan was later named as Bangladesh after the 1971 war. Okay, as an Indian, I know all this. But my knowledge about the Bangladesh war of Independence is very limited. Forget about the war but even otherwise I knew very little about Bangladesh in spite of its proximity to India. So when my husband went to Bangladesh for work, I asked him to get me something written by a Bangladesh...more In 1947, after Independence from the British, India was partitioned into India and Pakistan (east and West). East Pakistan was later named as Bangladesh after the 1971 war. Okay, as an Indian, I know all this. But my knowledge about the Bangladesh war of Independence is very limited. Forget about the war but even otherwise I knew very little about Bangladesh in spite of its proximity to India. So when my husband went to Bangladesh for work, I asked him to get me something written by a Bangladeshi author and he got A Golden Age. Honestly I couldn’t have selected a better book.

A Golden Age is about a Muslim woman called Rehana whose husband has expired and her children are forcefully handed over to the relatives as she was deemed unfit to raise her kids all alone. She works hard to get her kids back to Dhaka and succeeds but not without any sacrifices. The story actually begins when her kids are all grown up: Maya is a 17-year-old and Soheil is 19. Soheil and Maya are actively involved in student politics; Soheil is a very charming speaker and can pull crowds. When Pakistan attacks Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), Rehana does not want her children to get involved in the war in any way. She had to fight very hard to get them back from her relatives and she doesn’t want the war taking them away from her.

As the war comes closer to home and her children become involved to the point of leaving their homes and fighting for their country, we see all that Rehana has ever struggled for on the verge of falling to pieces. We also see her strength as a woman and her resolve to protect her children at all costs.

In A Golden Age, we don’t get to know the details of the war, we are always on the fringes. Our state is like Rehana’s, wanting to know what is happening and when it will all end. It is a human story, the story of a mother set against the backdrop of a war. I loved the authors writing, it took me to Bangladesh, to Dhanmondi and that period of struggle. I enjoyed reading this book immensely inspite of the serious topic. It was informative and entertaining. This is one book that I very highly recommend.(less)

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Aug 10, 2011 Felice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 1971 East Pakistan was on the brink of war. The recent elections had done little to allay the fears that poverty, disease, bigotry and natural disasters have created. It is a country besieged by civil unrest but it is also a country of families whose lives were consumed with the day to day of getting by and who could not afford to turn their efforts to politics even in those circumstances.

Author TahmimaAnam uses this moment in history as her starting point for The Golden Age. Unaware of the c...more In 1971 East Pakistan was on the brink of war. The recent elections had done little to allay the fears that poverty, disease, bigotry and natural disasters have created. It is a country besieged by civil unrest but it is also a country of families whose lives were consumed with the day to day of getting by and who could not afford to turn their efforts to politics even in those circumstances.

Author TahmimaAnam uses this moment in history as her starting point for The Golden Age. Unaware of the coming troubles, hope in the household of single mother Rehana Haque is a tangible thing. Years ago after the death of her husband she had to bowed to tradition, family pressure and inequality when she was forced to give up her son, Soheil and daughter, Maya. That sad and mortifying experience instilled a lifelong insecurity and guilt in Rehana that hasn’t dissipated even now that her son and daughter are almost grown.

Rehana’s careful dreams for her children shatter when the Bangladesh War for Independence begins. This is not a war of faraway battles. This is happening on Rehana’s doorstep. In short order Soheil and Maya are caught up in the demonstrations and rebellion and Rehana’s life is no longer about creating a better future for her family it’s about keeping her family alive in the immediate future.

In the quality of the writing, The Golden Age is definitely divided in two. This division isn’t deliberate; it’s the result of the second half of the novel being so much stronger than the first. Granted the drama quotient would naturally be ramped up to the sky in the second half because hey there’s a war. However given how well Anam handles the chaos, complexities and drama of politics and relationships once the war starts it’s surprising that she was unable to build a similar level of interest if not urgency into the Haque family’s back-story and earlier struggles. Not to mention the history that lead to the Bangladesh War of Independence itself.

Although Anam does not stint on fascinating and diverse culture elements that are specific to the Bangladeshi and Pakistanis she is still able to make The Golden Age is a universal story of mother love and war. Do not kid yourself that because the novel takes place in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh that this is about things that only happen in distant lands. Sadly, looked at event by event the plot could be set anywhere in the world and at any time period.

Once Anam gets her characters and plot to a boil, The Golden Age takes off. Suddenly the book gains authority and empathy over the historical and intimate elements of the story and a really good novel miraculously appears. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Feb 14, 2011 Zeborah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-authors, poc-authors, 2011

I'm very enthusiastic about this book, and not only because at one point it refers to Sultana's Dream and I'm like, “Yes, I've read that!" As one might half expect from such a reference this is a deeply feminist story: the story of those who wait, but don't just wait.

The prologue tells of Rehana's children being taken from her after her husband's death, so it's a bit of a jolt to have chapter 1 begin 10 years after she's won them back. But this lacuna becomes instrumental later while the story e...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Golden Age is the story of the Haque family, set against the backdrop of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence. In the Prologue to the story, it is March of 1959 in East Pakistan. Rehana Haque’s husband has just died and a court has ordered her to turn her two children over to her late husband’s brother who lives in West Pakistan. Fast forward to March of 1971, and as the story begins, it has been ten years since Rehana has taken back custody of her children. A democratic election has been h...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

Taking a tip from the illustrious Chris Blattman, my model on being a globe trotting development worker, I decided to read this book in preparation for an upcoming work trip to Bangladesh.

I'm glad I did - reading (even fictionalized) historical accounts about a country is probably a fun, insightful way to learn about it, as long as you keep in mind the potential biases. In this author's case, I suppose there are two: first, she was born several years after the Bangladesh Liberation War (this st...more Taking a tip from the illustrious Chris Blattman, my model on being a globe trotting development worker, I decided to read this book in preparation for an upcoming work trip to Bangladesh.

I'm glad I did - reading (even fictionalized) historical accounts about a country is probably a fun, insightful way to learn about it, as long as you keep in mind the potential biases. In this author's case, I suppose there are two: first, she was born several years after the Bangladesh Liberation War (this story centers around the 9-month 1971 conflict between what was then East and West Pakistan), and so I suspect there may be some romanticizing nostalgia going on (the same way I might romanticize the Iron Curtain or the Berlin Wall). And secondly, every (West) Pakistani character in this book is pretty uniformly awful - from the shrill Karachi relatives to the evil Pakistani military forces. The book's obviously pro-Bangladesh, which is fine and well and all that, though I think its pride (and nationalism) sometimes spills over into implicitly anti-Pakistan jingoism too. Which is less appealing.

Onto the good bits! One very, very good bit is that the protagonist is a middle-aged lady, a mother of two headstrong, charismatic college kids. The middle-aged-lady-as-focus is very rare indeed throughout film/TV/books, and so it's always refreshing to hear this voice, see through these eyes. Rehana Haque, the heroine, is also nicely quirky: from her easy-going spirituality to her girlish rebellious streak. At times it strains credulity, or feels a bit thin, such as Rehana swinging from anxiety to pride re: her son's guerrilla exploits. But overall, the voice is consistent and compelling.

The overall writing style is also compelling, and it feels very, very familiar. At least, I feel like I would have written this in the exact same way - which meant that, while the familiarity was warm and fuzzy, it also left me wishing for something more, in the same way I find my own writing limited and even formulaic. The author is no Salman Rushdie, blowing your hair back with a BIG BRAIN strutting its stuff. Nor is she even a R.K. Narayan, captivating you with humanistic simplicity. Instead, it was good, never great - and satisfying, but never overly stimulating.(less)

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Feb 21, 2013 Marja rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are a couple of good reasons to appreciate Tahmima Anam’s ’A Golden Age’, a rather light-reading take on the civil war in Pakistan in 1971, or the ’Bangladeshi Liberation War’. Firstly, it’s a book written staunchly from the point of view of a mother to two radicals, and with all the literature we have from the trenches of war, it’s refreshing to read a home front story. Secondly, ’A Golden Age’ is a well-crafted novel that does not get stuck on boring minutiae, but pushes forward like a H...more There are a couple of good reasons to appreciate Tahmima Anam’s ’A Golden Age’, a rather light-reading take on the civil war in Pakistan in 1971, or the ’Bangladeshi Liberation War’. Firstly, it’s a book written staunchly from the point of view of a mother to two radicals, and with all the literature we have from the trenches of war, it’s refreshing to read a home front story. Secondly, ’A Golden Age’ is a well-crafted novel that does not get stuck on boring minutiae, but pushes forward like a Hollywood film, providing, occasionally, even some thriller-like moments of cause-to-worry for its characters in absurdly dangerous situations. Thirdly, whilst the book by no means ignores the violence of war, it does not relish in the details of rape or torture: Anam prefers to have her characters observe torture as having occurred behind-the-scenes, without giving a first-person or third person account of the event of rape or any other horrid deed. The result is that war is not beautified but its horrors are distanced, which makes ’A Golden Age’ an extremely readable, if emotionally unengaging, story of an armed conflict. And finally, I found myself enjoying the story of a 38 year old mother of two falling in love with a person she barely knows as a political allegory. It was well schemed, if, again, emotionally unengaging, especially toward the end.

Then there’s the potential flaws of the story. Perhaps because ’A Golden Age’ is based on things Anam has heard from her parents and their generation, the novel is clearly biased in favour of the Bangladeshi. The Pakistani army commits genocide, and torture in Pakistani prisons is central to the story, but no account whatsoever is given of the atrocities probably committed by the rebels. Also, for a novel written by a Londoner, I was surprised at the things Anam decided to highlight as part of the Bangladeshi motherhood experience in 1971 – like that of any other arrangement than ’man, woman and child’ paling in comparison – when the novel otherwise did not go out of its way in order to provide us with period detail or cultural context. I don’t expect novels to subvert or question heterosexual arrangements or heterosexism, but the gender stereotyping in this book, but for a pants-wearing Sultana and for the political activism of Maya, the daughter, was mostly rather traditional. And finally, perhaps because this was a first book, I sometimes got the feeling that I was reading cultural fan fiction: English culture, English poetry, and English cultural figures get many a mention in the novel, but this does not serve to highlight how English-influenced Bangladeshi culture was in the 1970s, but rather feels like the author had wanted to mention everything she truly loves about English literature in her book. I would love to see a novel exploring cultural difference and cultural commonality, especially with what we deem ’foreign’ cultures to begin with, but dropping in names like Dylan Thomas or talking about Casablanca (the film) is not a very subtle way of making this point, and feels forced in ’A Golden Age’.(less)

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Nov 01, 2010 Meaghan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me realize how lucky I was to live in a country that is not plagued by civil war, a country that is blessed with riches. I really enjoyed the descriptions of a city torn in war and the descriptions of the refugee camp in India. While the book was powerful, I did have some problems with main character Rehana. I found that she never really questioned her son and his guerilla friends. Most of the characters find the injustice of the government to be atroc...more

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Feb 21, 2010 Sri rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Buku ini membuatku belajar tentang sejarah kemerdekaan Bangladesh dari Pakistan. Secara geografis negara Pakistan asli memang sudah aneh. Pakistan Barat dan Pakistan Timur(kelak menjadi Bangladesh) sudah terpisah jauh. Pakistan Timur sama sekali tidak berbatasan dengan Pakistan Barat. Di semua sisi, Pakistan Timur berbatasan dengan India dan sedikit dengan Burma. Orang-orang Pakistan berbahasa Urdu, orang-orang Pakistan Timur berbahasa Bengali. Di buku ini tidak dijelaskan mengapa ketika Pakista...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in Bangladesh during the revolution in which that country violently separated from Pakistan, this novel explores the loyalties to family & country of the main character, Rehana. Rehana is a Muslim widow to whom her two grown children (a son Sohail and a daughter Maya) mean everything. When the revolution comes, both Sohail & Maya commit themselves completely to the cause. Rehana has much more mixed feelings about the political situation, and the choices she makes end up being much mo...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Rimsha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

3 stars, for an original, heartfelt story. However, if I had read this story without knowing it's relevance to the political situation of Pak-Ind-Bangladesh in 1971, I would've enjoyed it a lot more. I was expecting to learn more, however, it did not fulfill this purpose.

I've heard about the Bangladesh War of 1971 through parents and relatives.. The book contained minimal insight on the political views of East/West Pakistan or the environmental conditions of Pakistan before Bangladesh won indepe...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Sally Wessely rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. My daughter-in-law gave it to me because she uses it in a course she teaches at Northeastern University. Ever since she and my son and grandson went to Bangladesh to live for a year and a half while my daughter-in-law did research for her PhD thesis, I have been fascinated by Bangladesh.

This story is not just a story of the events surrounding the war that lead to Bangladesh becoming an independent country, it is also a story of a mother's love for her children. It is a story a...more

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Oct 29, 2010 CeeAnne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have had A Golden Age on my Kindle for such a long time. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to read it, but I have been missing out. What an amazing book this is! For one thing this is a history lesson on the Bangladesh Liberation War and the genocide that took place in 1971. The story is set mainly in the area of the University of Dhaka. It's a story about Rehana and her two children, Maya and Sohail. The children both attend the university. Maya is a feminist who is frustrated with n...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Tahmima Anam's ambitious and powerful debut is the first novel in English to describe Bangladesh's war for independence, a brutal conflict that left 3 million dead and 10 million homeless. Anam's attempt to portray the violence and cruelty of political events through the personal experiences of a single family largely succeeds, but some critics felt that the two themes vied for dominance, creating a disjointed plot. While the Dallas Morning News found Anam's characters flat, the San Jose Mercury

...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Jyotsna Ps rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book a few years ago and recently gifted this to my MIL, so made me share my thoughts on the book.

Being married to a Bengali and my FIL himself had his childhood ripped apart because of the civil war , I wanted to read stuff about their story.

I love this book and the perspective it's written from. It's that of a well to do lady nevertheless simple minded from the way Tahmima has portrayed her. She moved all the way from Pakistan to East Bengal post marriage. We get to understand how...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Bree T rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-reads, south-asian-fiction

Rehana is a young widow when this book opens, who has lost her children. Her wealthier brother-in-law has petitioned a court for custody, citing that he is in a far better position to take care of her son and daughter. Rehana has no job and very little income and the judge rules that her children must go live with her brother-in-law until such time that Rehana can support them. Rehana is desolate (an understatement) and vows to stop at nothing to get them back into her care.

Fast forward some yea...more Rehana is a young widow when this book opens, who has lost her children. Her wealthier brother-in-law has petitioned a court for custody, citing that he is in a far better position to take care of her son and daughter. Rehana has no job and very little income and the judge rules that her children must go live with her brother-in-law until such time that Rehana can support them. Rehana is desolate (an understatement) and vows to stop at nothing to get them back into her care.

Fast forward some years and her children are now grown and Rehana is celebrating, as she does every year, the day on which they were returned to her care. She throws a party for their close neighbours and friends, a feast of good food and appreciation that they are all together again. Her son Sohail and daughter Maya are both teenagers, attending the local university. Both are quite involved in politics – especially Sohail. Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan and this novel takes place during their nine month long war for Independence.

Rehana finds herself a reluctant part in the rebellion, at the request of her son, who joins the resistance movement early on. She stores guns, ammunition, food, medical supplies etc in the house she built as a rental home, which was occupied by an Indian family. When they leave to return to their native country, Rehana sees it turned into a bunker of sorts for the young men in training to commit acts against the invading Pakistani army and also a hospital, as they rehabilitate a severely injured Major, Sohail’s commanding officer. At first extremely resentful of the Major recuperating in the house, fearful for what might happen (not only to her, but to her children) if it is found out, Rehana becomes used to his presence. They get to know each other as he recovers and then one day, he is gone. Like her son, like her daughter, like her tennants, like most people she knows.

Rehana decides to go and visit her daughter Maya in Calcutta, where she writes press releases on the war effort and helps in camps for the displaced and injured. Maya is passionate about what she does, so passionate that it’s like she has little room in her life for anything else. Rehana’s son Sohail is involved in the military rebellion, planning and carrying out ops designed to best hurt the invading Pakistani Army. But Rehana is only as passionate about one thing – keeping her children alive and safe. And when she returns home, she will make a devastating decision that allows her to do that.

I read A Golden Age as part of Shannon’s Around the World in 12 Books Challenge – it’s not something I’d have normally picked up and read but I’m glad I did because it’s always nice to learn new things, even through the world of fiction. Most of this book is set around 1970-1971-ish when Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan, a provincial state of Pakistan. They provided a lot of the goods for that country, but received precious little in funding for schooling, hospitals, etc and the growing discontent among the population came to a head after the 1970 national elections in the then-East Pakistan. The landslide victory of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman caused uproar in Pakistan where it was demanded he form a coalition government. He refused and declared independence on 26th March 1971, naming the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. Pakistan retaliated by invading to subdue the guerrilla forces, but after the nine-month struggle, Rahman was named prime minister of the new Bangladesh. Many people fled to the sympathetic India during the war, who also provided some military support.

Rehana’s character is established very early on in the book. She loves her children above all else and after the death of her husband, faces some dark days when they are taken from her and given to her BIL to raise until such time as the judge deems her income significant enough to provide for them. It takes her a little while to be able to do this and it isn’t until well into the book that it is told to the reader just how she accomplished it. It proves something the reader has already been able to figure out – there is nothing that she wouldn’t do to secure the safety and togetherness of her family. And by the end of this novel, that will be re-enforced with horrifying consequences. But at the same time, those horrifying consequences are sort of easy to understand. As a mother, there’s little I wouldn’t sacrifice to stop the death of one of my children. It doesn’t make the outcome any less terrible though, and it was something that left a sour taste in my mouth, even though I can understand why she did what she did.

What I knew about Bangladesh before you could probably have fit into a thimble – limited to loosely where it is and the fact that it floods. A lot. There’s a lot of disease and malnutrition. I knew little about how the country came to be so in that case I’m now remarkably more informed. Although no doubt embellished for fictional purposes, the fundamentals in this book are still the same – the elections, the unhappiness of the people when the government wasn’t formed, the declaration and resulting war. Given that it’s set during a war, it didn’t particularly stir an urge to visit and my subsequent research into it hasn’t changed that. There may be some lovely places there, but a lot of the country suffers, from lack of sanitation, water-borne diseases, malnutrition, high infant mortality rates and poverty. It did however highlight a bit of an interest in the area that I previously didn’t have and I would read more stories set in Bangladesh. I’d like to find something set in present day, if I could.

A Golden Age is quite a good story once you realise that it’s the story of a mother’s powerful love, not really the story of a rebellion and freedom. She’s not always a sympathetic character (most of them aren’t, actually. At times they’re fairly unlikable) but she has some severe convictions and her love for her children is all-encompassing.(less)

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Mar 24, 2013 Smitha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having loved Anam's second book, 'The Good Muslim', I was on the lookout for her first book - 'The Golden Age'. Although The Good Muslim was a sequel, I had no trouble following the story line, and I hoped that The Golden Age wouldn't be rendered redundant by the fact that I had already read the sequel.

I needn't have worried. It is East Pakistan in 1971. Rehana Haque has just about started to breathe easy. Her two children, Sohail and Maya, who she struggled to keep with her and bring up, after...more Having loved Anam's second book, 'The Good Muslim', I was on the lookout for her first book - 'The Golden Age'. Although The Good Muslim was a sequel, I had no trouble following the story line, and I hoped that The Golden Age wouldn't be rendered redundant by the fact that I had already read the sequel.

I needn't have worried. It is East Pakistan in 1971. Rehana Haque has just about started to breathe easy. Her two children, Sohail and Maya, who she struggled to keep with her and bring up, after she was widowed, have grown up and are in university. She now feels secure and comfortable, she has kept her children safe. The country is in the brink of a civil war. East Pakistan is fighting for independence and her children, she realizes, are right in the middle of it all. Not for them, the everyday worries of safety and security. Her sense of security vanishes overnight.

The life that she carefully tried to preserve, carefully nurtured, is all in pieces. Political upheavals seem to be mirrored in personal upheavals. Things which they took for granted are suddenly questioned.

While the sequel was largely about Maya and Sohail. The Golden Age, I would say, is mainly about Rehana. It is her story. Her struggles, her choices, and her life. Even when her choices seem wrong, it is difficult to judge her because her circumstances seem so tough on her. The ties that bind a mother to her children, and the extents to which people are forced to go because of their circumstances. Rehana finds herself part of a war, an upheaval that she wanted no part of, but is powerless to do anything about it.

I particularly liked the way the author has woven political incidents and upheavals into the story. Rehana's life in East Pakistan before it became Bangladesh is a window to life in East Pakistan and the way it all changed. Hindus who considered it their homeland, suddenly realized that they had to run for their lives. When suddenly everybody has to choose sides, and hope that they have chosen the right side. While the older generation struggles with the choices, the younger generation is the one with the spirit to fight for what they consider their right. I can't imagine what it must be to live through a war like this, but can only guess, that despite the tremendous losses, what they gained must be so very precious. A tale of love, heart-break, strife and hope.

A wonderful book. A book which I would recommend to everybody who likes books set in political situations and history. I especially love books of this sort, as it gives me an insight to how everyday life gets changed irrevocably by political decisions and political situations. (less)

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Aug 16, 2010 Lktrigueros rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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About Tahmima Anam

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1975. She was raised in Paris, New York City, and Bangkok.

After studying at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, she earned a PhD in Social Anthropology.

Her first novel, A Golden Age, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel Prize, and was the winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book....more

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“Her hands on the harmonium were delicate, square-tipped, her bitten-down nails paying homage to the seriousness of the task; her brows were knitted together in the service of the song, and in the end it was only to the music that she was bound. In singing she was, in only briefly, a supplicant, as though in the presence of a divinity that even she, devout non-believer, had to somehow acknowledge” — 2 people liked it

“Rehana regarded the saris and tried to recall the feeling they had given her, of being at once enveloped and set free, the tight revolutions of material around her hips and legs limiting movement, the empty space between blouse and petticoat permitting unexpected sensations -- the thrill of a breeze that has strayed low, through an open window, the knowledge of heat in strange places, the back, the exposed belly. It was the bringing together of night and day....” — 1 person liked it

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