I started this books around the world project in the pandemic, when travel was off limits. It’s taken longer than I thought it would, in part because there are so many countries! It’s a big world out there, and not every place has a lot of good books written about it. Take Bangladesh. I had trouble finding books that were about the country and not about Bangladeshi immigrants (or their children) living in the US or the UK. I got on the library waiting list for Banker to the Poor, the book about microlending by Muhammed Yunus, even though I am familiar with the story. Then I received a notice that my request was cancelled, probably because the copy is lost. I decided to see what else the Chicago Public Library had about Bangladesh, and up popped The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam. When I went to Amazon to find the link and photo, I discovered that this novel is the second part of a trilogy.
I knew next to nothing about Bangladesh before reading this, just the broad outlines: poor country, regularly ravaged by flooding, helped immensely by the development of financial systems that were tailored to the needs of poor people. This book added to my knowledge, because how could it not?
The story is about a brother and sister dealing with the aftermath of the country’s 1971 War of Liberation, in which it separated from Pakistan. The violence included the genocide of Bengali Hindus and systematic rape as a military strategy. The sister, Maya, is a doctor and political activist who responds to the was by moving to a remote area and working as an ob/gyn. She also performs abortions on the women who were impregnated by Pakistani soldiers. The brother, Sohail, served in the war and is scarred by the violence that he saw–and that he inflicted. He takes up a conservative form of Islam and becomes a religious leader, sought out for his insightful sermons. They are surrounded by collective trauma, because their friends and families have similar stories. So what do they do with all of this?
And that’s where the story takes us. This isn’t exactly an uplifting read, because these people are grappling with pain. They are fighting and fleeing their demons, at the same time, and trying to figure out what to do about the next generation.
And now I know quite a bit more about Bangladesh. Just a couple hundred or so more countries to go!
