A quarter of the way through A Golden Age, and I'm beginning to feel involved. I want to know what happens to Rehana, a mother who has already lost her children once, and her children, who may be taken from her again, this time by civil war. But I don't really care yet.
Tahmima Anam's writing is a little detached. Things happen, but apart from the exotic names you wouldn't know they were happening in Bangladesh. She documents the back story, how Rehana's in-laws persuaded a court to give them custody of the children after the death of her husband. How Rehana won them back and built the house that seems to be central to the story remains a mystery.