In the dying days of a brutal civil war, 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 madrasa, the conflict between them comes to a devastating climax. Set in Bangladesh at a time when religious fundamentalism is on the rise, The Good Muslim is an epic story about faith, family and the long shadow of war.
The Good Muslim: A Novel
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Editorial Reviews
Review
In this book of searing beauty, Tahmima Anam shows us a family searching for ways to navigate through the aftermath of war; in the process she takes us on an unforgettable journey through a young nation trying to define itself.' Kamila Shamsie, author of BURNT SHADOWS
About the Author
Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1975. Her first novel, A Golden Age, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel Prize, and was the winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Her writing has been published in Granta, the New York Times, and the Guardian. She lives in London.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The Good Muslim is the second novel of a trilogy -- something I probably should have known before I began reading this one. Although the novel stands on its own, it makes frequent references to characters and events that would have been more familiar to me had I read A Golden Age first.
The novel takes place in Bangladesh in the 1980s, with frequent flashbacks to the early 1970s. To some extent, two stories from the two different times are told in parallel: Maya's recent return to her home in Dhaka after years of providing medical services to village women -- including abortions for those who were sexually assaulted -- in other parts of the country; and her brother Sohail's earlier arrival home after fighting in the country's war for independence. Maya is nonetheless the novel's focal point. She left Dhaka after Sohail's return, when Sohail made a public display of burning his books. She comes back at about the time her mother becomes ill.
After the war ends, Sohail begins to study the Quran that his mother gave him. For reasons the reader does not learn until the last chapters, Sohail takes the holy book to heart. When Maya, weary of listening to Sohail proclaim the book's greatness, tells her mother that Sohail is going to turn her house into a mosque, Rehana replies: "Don't be so frightened of it. It's only religion." A question The Good Muslim asks, I think, is whether we should be frightened of religion, or only of the dangerous zealots who pervert its teachings. Maya is clearly skeptical of religion itself; she resists its power to change people at their core.
Sohail begins to deliver sermons from his rooftop. Initially Sohail preaches about "the many faces of God," suggesting his openness to all religions (even to the gods of the ancient Greeks), but as time passes his words become less inclusive: "There was only one. One message. One Book. The world narrowed. Curtains between men and women. Lines drawn in the sand." As he continues to preach and gains a following, Sohail loses touch with his mother and neglects his son's welfare before sending his son, Zaid, to a madrasa on the other side of the country. Sohail has become too righteous and self-involved to deal with the mundane demands of parenthood. It eventually falls to Maya to look out for Zaid, particularly after Zaid runs away from (and is sent back to) the madrasa.
Some aspects of the novel are more effective than others. I found it difficult to muster interest in Maya's budding romance with Sohail's friend Joy (a recent returnee to Bangladesh who drove a cab and provided home care in New York) or in her relationship with Sohail's bright, talented (but larcenous) son. Given his importance to the story, Zaid should be a more fully developed character; we see snippets of his life but he lacks fullness. The same could be said of Joy who, while imprisoned during the war, loses a finger to prison guards after an experience that has an almost mystical quality. Perhaps Tahmima Anam was trying to create a moment of light in a dark time but Joy's experience just doesn't ring true. There's also a mystical (perhaps miraculous is a better word) element to the story involving Maya's mother that I found difficult to accept. In what I think is the novel's weakest moment, Sohail's religious fervor and Maya's faith in medicine intersect over their mother's illness, leaving Maya to question her well-formed beliefs.
In addition to the mother's illness, other aspects of the story struck me as artificial. The reason that Sohail becomes a "good Muslim," revealed near the novel's end, and the events that ensnare Maya and Zaid in the closing pages, are unconvincing. The last chapter and the epilog come close to melodrama. I was left with the feeling that I'd read a carefully constructed story, a story designed to pull emotions from me that I just didn't feel.
Despite these weaknesses, The Good Muslim has much to recommend it. There are some electrifying moments in this novel, often centered on the hardships that Bangladeshi women endure. Anam's prose is mesmerizing. Parts of the novel are captivating and its cautionary tale of religious zeal has value. I think sometimes Anam tries too hard to make a point and obscures it in the process, but the novel is worth reading for its shining moments.
The novel takes place in Bangladesh in the 1980s, with frequent flashbacks to the early 1970s. To some extent, two stories from the two different times are told in parallel: Maya's recent return to her home in Dhaka after years of providing medical services to village women -- including abortions for those who were sexually assaulted -- in other parts of the country; and her brother Sohail's earlier arrival home after fighting in the country's war for independence. Maya is nonetheless the novel's focal point. She left Dhaka after Sohail's return, when Sohail made a public display of burning his books. She comes back at about the time her mother becomes ill.
After the war ends, Sohail begins to study the Quran that his mother gave him. For reasons the reader does not learn until the last chapters, Sohail takes the holy book to heart. When Maya, weary of listening to Sohail proclaim the book's greatness, tells her mother that Sohail is going to turn her house into a mosque, Rehana replies: "Don't be so frightened of it. It's only religion." A question The Good Muslim asks, I think, is whether we should be frightened of religion, or only of the dangerous zealots who pervert its teachings. Maya is clearly skeptical of religion itself; she resists its power to change people at their core.
Sohail begins to deliver sermons from his rooftop. Initially Sohail preaches about "the many faces of God," suggesting his openness to all religions (even to the gods of the ancient Greeks), but as time passes his words become less inclusive: "There was only one. One message. One Book. The world narrowed. Curtains between men and women. Lines drawn in the sand." As he continues to preach and gains a following, Sohail loses touch with his mother and neglects his son's welfare before sending his son, Zaid, to a madrasa on the other side of the country. Sohail has become too righteous and self-involved to deal with the mundane demands of parenthood. It eventually falls to Maya to look out for Zaid, particularly after Zaid runs away from (and is sent back to) the madrasa.
Some aspects of the novel are more effective than others. I found it difficult to muster interest in Maya's budding romance with Sohail's friend Joy (a recent returnee to Bangladesh who drove a cab and provided home care in New York) or in her relationship with Sohail's bright, talented (but larcenous) son. Given his importance to the story, Zaid should be a more fully developed character; we see snippets of his life but he lacks fullness. The same could be said of Joy who, while imprisoned during the war, loses a finger to prison guards after an experience that has an almost mystical quality. Perhaps Tahmima Anam was trying to create a moment of light in a dark time but Joy's experience just doesn't ring true. There's also a mystical (perhaps miraculous is a better word) element to the story involving Maya's mother that I found difficult to accept. In what I think is the novel's weakest moment, Sohail's religious fervor and Maya's faith in medicine intersect over their mother's illness, leaving Maya to question her well-formed beliefs.
In addition to the mother's illness, other aspects of the story struck me as artificial. The reason that Sohail becomes a "good Muslim," revealed near the novel's end, and the events that ensnare Maya and Zaid in the closing pages, are unconvincing. The last chapter and the epilog come close to melodrama. I was left with the feeling that I'd read a carefully constructed story, a story designed to pull emotions from me that I just didn't feel.
Despite these weaknesses, The Good Muslim has much to recommend it. There are some electrifying moments in this novel, often centered on the hardships that Bangladeshi women endure. Anam's prose is mesmerizing. Parts of the novel are captivating and its cautionary tale of religious zeal has value. I think sometimes Anam tries too hard to make a point and obscures it in the process, but the novel is worth reading for its shining moments.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
A Golden Age introduced the widow Rehana Haque and her two teenagers, Sohail and Maya, as they participated in the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence.
The Good Muslim is the second book in the Haque family trilogy. It begins in 1984, thirteen years after the war. Bangladeshis are not necessarily much better off than before the war. The country has had two presidents assassinated and is now living under the thumb of the Dictator. Martial law is in effect, war criminals still have not been prosecuted, and religious extremism is building.
Once inseparable, Sohail and his sister Maya were driven apart following the war. Sohail felt the need to atone for his part in the war by gradually falling into an extreme practice of Islam. Maya became a doctor and shunned religion. The two have had no contact since 1977, when Maya fled from Dhaka in anger at her brother's complete renunciation of all the worldly things he once treasured. She felt she had lost the brother she loved, her heart's companion.
Maya returns to Dhaka in 1984. She is distressed at her brother's continued religiosity, yet she is seduced by its promises when disease threatens her mother's life. She quickly forges a strong bond with her motherless nephew Zaid. Sohail has other plans for the boy, deepening the rift between brother and sister. Maya finds it impossible to connect with her brother. His religious devotion is so intense that he neglects his son's needs and turns his back on old friends. As in the old days, Maya can't help finding ways of getting herself in hot water. She's an intelligent, bold, outspoken woman in a country that favors female submission.
Tahmima Anam's strength lies in writing about the intricacies of familial love and loyalty. The political and religious climates aren't neglected by any means, but the real beauty here is in Maya's struggle to find a new way of loving her brother. Eventually she has to let go of her need to bring back the old Sohail, and love him from a distance for the good he has done.
The Good Muslim stands strongly on its own, but it will have a lot more depth if you've first read A Golden Age. It helps to know the Haque family history, and to know the characters as they were in 1971---so hopeful and militant and in love with the idea of freedom for Bangladesh. It's interesting to note that the character of Rehana is based on the author's grandmother.
The Good Muslim is the second book in the Haque family trilogy. It begins in 1984, thirteen years after the war. Bangladeshis are not necessarily much better off than before the war. The country has had two presidents assassinated and is now living under the thumb of the Dictator. Martial law is in effect, war criminals still have not been prosecuted, and religious extremism is building.
Once inseparable, Sohail and his sister Maya were driven apart following the war. Sohail felt the need to atone for his part in the war by gradually falling into an extreme practice of Islam. Maya became a doctor and shunned religion. The two have had no contact since 1977, when Maya fled from Dhaka in anger at her brother's complete renunciation of all the worldly things he once treasured. She felt she had lost the brother she loved, her heart's companion.
Maya returns to Dhaka in 1984. She is distressed at her brother's continued religiosity, yet she is seduced by its promises when disease threatens her mother's life. She quickly forges a strong bond with her motherless nephew Zaid. Sohail has other plans for the boy, deepening the rift between brother and sister. Maya finds it impossible to connect with her brother. His religious devotion is so intense that he neglects his son's needs and turns his back on old friends. As in the old days, Maya can't help finding ways of getting herself in hot water. She's an intelligent, bold, outspoken woman in a country that favors female submission.
Tahmima Anam's strength lies in writing about the intricacies of familial love and loyalty. The political and religious climates aren't neglected by any means, but the real beauty here is in Maya's struggle to find a new way of loving her brother. Eventually she has to let go of her need to bring back the old Sohail, and love him from a distance for the good he has done.
The Good Muslim stands strongly on its own, but it will have a lot more depth if you've first read A Golden Age. It helps to know the Haque family history, and to know the characters as they were in 1971---so hopeful and militant and in love with the idea of freedom for Bangladesh. It's interesting to note that the character of Rehana is based on the author's grandmother.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
In 1971 Pakistan split into two nations, present day Pakistan and Bangladesh, by means of a brutal civil war. In the aftermath of that war, citizens of Bangladesh celebrated their hard won independence, while trying to cope with the horrors that had been inflicted upon them, and the horrors that they had inflicted. Thousands of women had been raped, and many of them were pregnant. The new government called them heroes, but there was no heroes' welcome awaiting them at home, in a land where a raped woman can be put to death to preserve the honor of her family. Many soldiers had been through a brutal experience, and they were left to their own devices when the war was over. They did not find many therapists to help them with post traumatic stress.
Tahmima Anam has crafted a beautifully written story of a woman's life after war, a life constrained by custom and religion, lived with dependence and independence, beauty and sorrow, and the pervasive sense of loss. Within alternating chapters of past and present, we learn Maya's history, her fractured bonds to family, friends, and religion, her growing despair for her country, and the heavy price of a woman's freedom in a land of misogyny and fundamentalism.
Maya and her mother are real and fascinating characters. The author speaks from Maya's perspective, so we get to know her best. She is a complex bundle of contradictions. She has lost her beloved older brother, Sohail to a strict form of Islam that precludes just about every form of human activity. He rebuffs her attempts to reestablish their relationship. Sohail's son Zaid, ill clothed, underfed, and emotionally abandoned, is forbidden from attending school, until a suitably Islamic one can be found, where an even more heartbreaking fate awaits. We don't get much insight into the mind of the fundamentalist, except at rare moments when Sohail makes a foray into his family's life. That was my biggest disappointment with this novel: the reader doesn't gain a real understanding of Sohail, and the revealed history of his past does not fully explain his choices.
The story is bleak and disturbing, as one reviewer complains, although it ends on a mildly hopeful note. The bleakness reflects the reality of the time and place. It does not detract from this excellent novel. When I first read the title, I expected an apology for Islam, but the writer does not attempt to win sympathy or excuse cruelty. She presents a world as it is, and leaves the reader to sort it out. This is a fine example of good writing, and I am better off today from having read this book. I enjoyed learning about this distant land, its history, people and culture. The writing is polished and skillful, the story engrossing, and the characters believable.
Tahmima Anam has crafted a beautifully written story of a woman's life after war, a life constrained by custom and religion, lived with dependence and independence, beauty and sorrow, and the pervasive sense of loss. Within alternating chapters of past and present, we learn Maya's history, her fractured bonds to family, friends, and religion, her growing despair for her country, and the heavy price of a woman's freedom in a land of misogyny and fundamentalism.
Maya and her mother are real and fascinating characters. The author speaks from Maya's perspective, so we get to know her best. She is a complex bundle of contradictions. She has lost her beloved older brother, Sohail to a strict form of Islam that precludes just about every form of human activity. He rebuffs her attempts to reestablish their relationship. Sohail's son Zaid, ill clothed, underfed, and emotionally abandoned, is forbidden from attending school, until a suitably Islamic one can be found, where an even more heartbreaking fate awaits. We don't get much insight into the mind of the fundamentalist, except at rare moments when Sohail makes a foray into his family's life. That was my biggest disappointment with this novel: the reader doesn't gain a real understanding of Sohail, and the revealed history of his past does not fully explain his choices.
The story is bleak and disturbing, as one reviewer complains, although it ends on a mildly hopeful note. The bleakness reflects the reality of the time and place. It does not detract from this excellent novel. When I first read the title, I expected an apology for Islam, but the writer does not attempt to win sympathy or excuse cruelty. She presents a world as it is, and leaves the reader to sort it out. This is a fine example of good writing, and I am better off today from having read this book. I enjoyed learning about this distant land, its history, people and culture. The writing is polished and skillful, the story engrossing, and the characters believable.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A good story supported by solid writing
The Good Muslim is a historical fiction that follows the lives of a family during the Bangladesh war of independence and two decades beyond. Read more
Published 9 days ago by meymoon
Welcome insight into Reality
Like so many people, I came into this reading with a cursory knowledge of Islam and Muslim culture. Oh, sure, we've got Muslim families living here in the Jersey boondocks, but... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Joanne M. Friedman
Both a beautifully-written and riveting book
This was one of those "oh, well, why not" books for me - the kind I pick up thinking they might be interesting, although once I've got them sitting in the giant to-be-read pile on... Read more
Published 7 months ago by S. McGee
Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone?
I looked forward to learning about Islamic life in this book, and eventually did, though getting there was a long slow confusing read for me. Read more
Published 8 months ago by James F. Strasma
Takes you to the heart of Bangladesh
The Good Muslim begins 10 years after A Golden Age ends.The war has ended, a new country, Bangladesh is formed and 10 years have passed. Read more
Published 8 months ago by VioletCrush
Disappointing
I had great expectations for this novel, but unfortunately, I was disappointed. I learned quite a bit about life in Bangladesh during this period, but her insights into the... Read more
Published 8 months ago by AZOMAMA
Peace Is Harder Than War
The Good Muslim by Tahmina Anam is the story of two siblings, sister Maya Haque and brother Sohail Haque. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Beverly Jackson
Ambition Not Realized
Popular perception is that a writer's second novel isn't as good as their debut effort. It's also popular perception that the second book of a trilogy, because it is essentially a... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Michael Lima
Beautifully written. An absolute pleasure to read.
The Good Muslim is a novel about a family's divergent reactions to the civil war in Bangladesh. The plot centers on a brother who fought in the war, came back scarred, and turned... Read more
Published 9 months ago by L. King
enjoyable but very slanted
When I selected The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam as an advance read from my lovely Harper friends, I didn't realize that it was the second book in a series of three about a... Read more
Published 9 months ago by cheryl1213
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