One of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Spring, 1971, East Pakistan. Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her beloved children, Sohail and Maya. Her young family is growing up fast, and Rehana wants to remember this day forever. But out on the hot city streets, something violent is brewing. As the civil war develops, a war which will eventually see the birth of Bangladesh, Rehana struggles to keep her children safe and finds herself facing a heartbreaking dilemma.

Author Biography

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She was selected as a Granta Best of Young British Novelist 2013. Her first novel, A Golden Age, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel Award in 2007, and was the winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Her second novel, The Good Muslim, was shortlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and was also longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2011. She lives in London.