A Golden Age

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It was to the West that her two small children had been sent in 1959 after she lost a court appeal to keep them. There is the brutality of war, mostly at a distance, sometimes present and political events intrude; but there is a continuum of family life, food, neighbours, love and loss.

I enjoyed this novel set in Bangladesh on the eve of and during the War of Independence with Pakistan in 1971. The junta annulled the results of the 1970 elections and arrested Prime Minister-elect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This is a debut novel set against the Bangladesh War of Independence; it’s not a historical novel, but the story is told through the medium of one family and those in their immediate circle. The central theme here, in the book about Bangladesh, is that all can be sacrificed except her children.

When the book opens Reena has just lost her children to her in-laws, and then the book jumps a few years into the future where Reena and her children struggle though Bangladesh birth pains as the country gains its independence from Pakistan. Dar Rehana isi revine repede, construieste o casa si din inchirierea ei reuseste sa stranga banii necesari sa ii aduca inapoi langa ea. I enjoyed this first novel, which relates the struggles of the widowed Rehana Haque to support and protect her grown son Sohail and daughter Maya, during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. The book was originally published in the United Kingdom by Canongate Books, [14] and then later published in the United States by HarperCollins.

Rehana's neighbors and many of the other minor characters are sharply drawn and their stories are intertwined with those of Rehana and her children. Also, though Shona is at the back side of Rehana’s house, it is not situated at the end of a blind lane. This story reveals that while a women's role in war is different, they too do not come out untouched. Not a revolutionary, Rehana nevertheless agrees with her children's views and, with a mother's mixed feelings borne of fear of the risks they are taking, gets drawn into their guerilla activities herself.Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan before its fight for independence from Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War.