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Tahmima Anam Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Tahmima Anam
Photo: Abeer Y Hoque

Tahmima Anam

How to pronounce Tahmima Anam: Emphasis on the second syllable of last name

Tahmima Anam Biography

Tahmima Anam is the recipient of a Commonwealth Writers Prize, an O. Henry Prize, and has been named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University and now lives in London where she is on the board of ROLI, a music tech company founded by her husband.



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Interview

Tahmima Anam discusses her first novel, A Golden Age, set during the 1970s Bangladesh War of Independence.

Did you always want to be a writer? You have a Ph.D. in social anthropology— do you ever consider returning to the academic world?

I wasn't a very devoted academic—I found the idea of writing something that had to stick to a certain notion of truthfulness very difficult. Anthropology is certainly the most literary of the social sciences, and yet one still has to adhere to a loose sense of  "what really happened." I wanted a genre that would allow me to tell my readers something about what it was like to have lived through the Bangladesh war, something visceral and palpable. In this case, not having to stick to the facts really enabled that act of the imagination.

Having said all of that, I miss being part of an academic institution. I spent so many years in grad school that I now fi nd myself feeling a bit lost when September rolls around and there aren't any classes to attend. And I love to teach, so perhaps someday I will teach creative writing.


Where do you write? Do you tend to follow a strict work schedule or write in spurts of activity?

What I'm about to tell you is very odd, I know, but it happens to be true: I wrote almost all of A Golden Age ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Tahmima Anam at BookBrowse
The Startup Wife jacket The Bones of Grace jacket The Good Muslim jacket A Golden Age jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Tahmima Anam but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Aamina Ahmad

    Aamina Ahmad

    Aamina Ahmad, a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, has received a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award. Her short fiction has appeared in One Story, The Southern ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    A Golden Age

    Try:
    The Return of Faraz Ali
    by Aamina Ahmad

  • Monica Ali

    Monica Ali

    Monica Ali is the daughter of English and Bangladeshi parents.

    She came to England at the age of three, and her first home was Bolton in Greater Manchester. Ali later studied at Oxford University.

    Her first novel, Brick ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    A Golden Age

    Try:
    Brick Lane
    by Monica Ali

We recommend 15 similar authors


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