The Good Muslim

Tahmima Anam's debut novel, A Golden Age, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and was winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Her follow up, The Good Muslim, was shortlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. She has been published in the Guardian, the Financial Times, and Freeman's, and is a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times. In 2013, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she now lives in London.

What does it mean to be a good daughter, sister, friend and citizen - and a good Muslim?

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
In the dying days of a brutal civil war in Bangladesh, Sohail Haque stumbles upon an abandoned building. Inside he finds a young woman whose story will haunt him for a lifetime to come.
Almost a decade later, Sohail's sister, Maya, returns home after a long absence to find her beloved brother transformed. While Maya has stuck to her revolutionary ideals, Sohail has shunned his old life to become a charismatic religious leader. And when Sohail decides to send his son to a madrasa, the conflict between brother and sister comes to a devastating climax.
The Good Muslim is an epic story about faith, family, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and the long shadow of war from prizewinning Bangladeshi novelist Tahmima Anam.

“Anam’s fluent prose and sharp insights are at their best when the narrative strays . . . into the surreal ways in which faith and love work-and sometimes fail.” — The New Yorker
“The Good Muslim brims with gripping narrative, absorbing history and Shakespearean moral conundrums. . . . A keen examination of survival and forgiveness.” — Los Angeles Times
“Anam has an eye for culture, and for cultural dissonance. The writer’s gift is to make the unfamiliar understood. The Good Muslim succeeds in doing exactly that, and doing it well.” — Denver Post
“Throughout the novel’s extremes of violence and tragedy, Anam always allows the ultimate humanity of the characters to shine through.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Anam has a gift for tackling complex issues both personal and political.” — Library Journal
“Gripping and beautifully written. . . . From historical, political, and social tragedy, Anam has fashioned a mesmerizing story capturing a culture and a time.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Anam seems to be a novelist not so much luxuriating in the act of writing as in total control of it, using the right words to create her stunning story.” — Arifa Akbar, The Independent
“Anam tells a poignant, little-known story of a country often lost in the maze of global politics.” — Booklist