'Anam achieves a delicacy and tenderness in conjuring the "threads of feeling" between people, a poetic precision of images: kites floating, huts sinking into the sea, "hungry, cracked earth". From the wreckage and destruction grows a voice of real eloquence'

'Anam has created for Bangladesh what Romesh Gunesekera managed for Sri Lanka: a ballad for perserverance . . . A Golden Age pays tribute, with sensitivity and restrained passion, to those who fought for one such arbour: a country to call home'

'Anam has her own distinctive voice . . . the authenticity shines through Anams beautiful, simple prose'

'A stunning novel lays bare a mother's ordeal in the gulf between the two Pakistans'

'A Golden Age compellingly twists the personal and the historical, humming with handed down wisdom'

Vivid . . . momentous change and heartbreaking dilemmas

'Id put a few bob on Tahmima Anam  the extract from her novel-in-progress . . . is a vivid and intriguing slice of Bangladesh in 1959' (Written following the publication of Bedford Square, an anthology of new writing from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion's Creative Writing Programme at Royal Holloway, which included an extract from A Golden Age) 

'A steely tale of how one family deals with political unrest  Moving and beautifully written'

'Anam writes with a poetic lyricism that is both seductively romantic and explores troubling themes and violent truths with searing verisimilitude. An outstanding debut that glows with the golden hue of the title'

'The book touches on love, devotion and hope'

'A moving novel of deceptive simplicity and strength'

'Anam deftly balances the story of a nation against that of a family'

'A Golden Age is an ambitious and powerful debut'

'Anams novel flows easily, packing in a wealth of history as well as attention to detail that effortlessly make the image come alive . . . An assured, moving read'

'This book is by turn moving, sad, but always absorbing'

'With A Golden Age, Anam is reminding Bangladeshis born, like her, after the war just what independence was all about and what the hopes and aspirations of their parents were before corruption ate them away'

'Anam has done a service to her country . . . No other writer has treated the subject with such clarity before, in English'

'I had tears in my eyes'