Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age

I just finished reading Tahmima Anam’s first book, A Golden Age, a historical novel set during the Bangladeshi war of independence. It follows a young widow named Rehana, as she tries to keep her small family–her son Sohail, and her daughter Maya–together through the horror of the 1971 war with Pakistan. A Golden Age has one of the best opening chapters I’ve read in a while, and so it was good to see it included in the latest issue of Granta magazine (Granta 96: War Zones).