A Golden Age (Book 38) in Book Challenge 2016 (52 books to be read in 52 weeks)

A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (317 pages, including excerpt from The Good Muslim) is the story of the creation of a new country in 1971. In the spring of that year, in East Pakistan, Rehana sets about organising a party for her two children. She has struggled with the past - the time she had to give them up to her brother in law until she got the money together to raise them. Little does she realise just how life changing the next nine months will be for her family and friends - especially when civil war turns up at their doorstep.

This is the first in a trilogy about Bangladesh, and was a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Winner for First Book in 2008. A very strong effort - I admit to not knowing a great deal about Bangladesh, and this book (although fiction) was a good start in introducing me to the country. There was a certain something missing, it didn’t grab me to the extent where I lived and breathed the book even when I wasn’t reading it. However, I’d love to read the other books in the series, just to see what happens to the family over the course of the next few years and during the new country’s formative years.

Date Read: 11 - 15 May 2016

Books Read This Year: 38/52. Total Pages Read So Far This Year: 9608