A Golden Age

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As it is though, it is a book rife with big names, and big events and big, lofty ideals that can't ever be bothered with the dirt and strife that are real lives. 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. 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. This historical fiction novel centers the point of view of Rehana Haque, a widowed mother who struggles through Bangladesh Liberation War as both her children become increasingly involved with the war efforts. She cannot have children so works to have Rehana seen as unfit after the death of Iqbal so that she have get custody of Sohail and Maya.

For Rehana Haque, a young Urdu-speaking widow born in the western 'horn' but living in 1971 in the Bengali East, the chasm dividing Pakistan has long been metaphorical as well as geographic. e. the split between East and West Pakistan in 1971, the central theme is a mother’s efforts to save her children. While this is a beautiful setup, and there are some very striking scenes, it is sadly not because of the book that they are striking, it is simply history. This book must have put it on people's radar, and maybe inspired them to get to know about our nation a little better.

Every year,' Rehana observes, 'the land will turn to sea as it disappears under the spell of water, and then prevail again, as if by magic, and this refrain, this looping repetition, is the archive of its long, flood-turned history. It also effectively illustrates the strength of maternal love, and the lengths a woman will go to to protect her children. I particularly wanted to understand her daughter, Maya, because Rehana herself seems baffled by her, and only her passionate rage over the fate of her beloved friend Shaheen gives a glimpse of her vulnerabilities. Dar Rehana isi revine repede, construieste o casa si din inchirierea ei reuseste sa stranga banii necesari sa ii aduca inapoi langa ea.

This includes citing the 1963 film Cleopatra before it was released which left some critics questioning some of the liberties that Anam took with the fictional characters and telling of the story. We then went on to Kathmandu, where we came upon a human chain dredging a river looking for bodies, after a busy but rickety wooden bridge collapsed.

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. Rehana Haque is a woman born in Kolkata, widow of a Pakistani, and mother of Bangladeshi freedom fighters stuck in a war for a country she struggles to identify with. Rehana grew up in calucutta and then left to west Pakistan after her marriage and her native tongue became Urdu, Rehana does not feel the same sense of nationalism as her children. I'm going to start right into the next book of this trilogy, The Good Muslim, while the characters are still fresh in my mind. The edition I read was published in 2012 as part of the Canongate ‘ the Canons‘ list, which is a slightly strange mixture of ‘boundary-breaking’ books that Canongate decided either were already classics in their own right, or deserved to be.