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"The days of love and war" Tahmima Anam

Bangladesh is a country plagued by environmental disasters, is a marshy land subject to flooding inhabited by a people condemned to eternal precariousness of life. From 1947 onwards, this little strip of land has been fought between India and Pakistan, then was annexed to Pakistan in the name of brotherhood religious.

East Pakistan, as it was then, and regain their independence will be recognized as a sovereign state in 1971: a year that gold, as the book title Tahmima Anam English, translated into Italian "The days of love and war" a year are being told by the writer through the story of Rehana and her children, Sohail and Maya.

Rehana is a young woman, widowed with two children still small. On the death of her husband will take their custody because they are too poor and thus unable to maintain them. Sohail and Maya will live for a year with the uncles who live far away from the mother this separation as a defeat, a searing pain that has no equal, an unbearable loss.

Rehana fight to get them back with him by all means, and gets its way.

Sohail and Maya, now college students commit themselves politically to support those who claimed the independence of their state and who was elected democratically by the people.

The mother looks worried about their enthusiasm and their anger, afraid of losing them again, but can not resist their choices even knowing the risks. And when the situation falls you understand the intentions of the child:

"You go too right? " asks already knowing the answer. He wants to stop him, but gives in, you can not object to the love that the child "whatever it was had for Bengali: the mud of the Delta, semi-transparent and full of fish bones of the river, the green of rice paddies and the boundless blue , piercing the sky above the flat earth ".

And she herself was aware of what his decision was right " what was the country divided in two halves located on opposite ends of India like a pair of horns. Without even the language to unite the West Pakistan and East Pakistan-Urdu and Bengali in the east to the west. "

Sohail, Sohail her sweet, come in, then join the resistance that is being organized, even the army joined the rebels and some areas of Bangladesh becoming a real theater of war and ruthless reprisals.

And the story unfolds around these events, the dramatic days of the war, are told that hand, from the perspective of women. Rehana will leave more and more involved: hide weapons and men in his garden at his home, heal the wounded, and will be forced to lie to his own friends.

The war is seen through the eyes of this particular mother, a woman sensitive, which is able to get involved, to change herself, which may be of help to children, respecting their will. But they will learn a lot and follow them it will mean even change itself, its own way of seeing and looking at reality.

The novel recounts the nine months that will lead to the creation of a state. Nine months from March to December 1971 to affirm the independence of Bangladesh, the small states bordering the Bay of Bengal, and after the partition, he was absurdly tied to Pakistan.

The small private story of a mother and her children unfolds and intertwines with the great history of Bangladesh.
While the Pakistani army

sowing death in the streets of Dhaka, brutalized prisoners, forces the Hindu population to forced emigration. Rehana silence protects the movement of children, cooking has always relentlessly as women do, but also takes care of a wounded soldier passed to the strength and the courage to say to struggle to pull her husband out of jail the girl loved by Sohail.

And she eventually falls in love, with Bangladesh became independent and not face life with courage and determination.
is a man who falls in love with a gift for her invaluable posiede: "To speak and understand a little more"

A great character, Rehana to its simplicity. A woman full of feelings and nuances that knows how to be questioned by life, knows how to change, knowing the risks they run.

Anam, writer, was born and lived in Bangladesh up to two years, in return for the holidays almost every year, but had nomadic education. He spent his life in various parts of the world, Paris, New York, Bangkok, following his father's diplomatic studied in America, attending creative writing courses in London, where he lives, and (although in the family speak Bengali) writes in English.

"The war of independence from Pakistan in 1971 marks the birth of Bangladesh, the country where I was born. - says the writer - In the house of Dhanmondi Road 4, where I lived the first years of my life, many have found refuge resistance fighters. My parents - along with many other friends and relatives - have also become involved and I grew up hearing their stories. And even though I was fascinated by many aspects of the war, particularly interested me as it had been for men and normal women who were trying to survive the experience. And so I tried to write a war story that was also a love story and a family saga. The people fought, yes, but they also had to cook their meals, fall in love, quarreling with her children, trying to keep the family together in difficult times ".

To write this book was inspired by his grandparents, but intervitato many people returning several times in his home country that remains particularly close.

"be surprised of the willingness of the people of my country to address this issue. I spent much time with them, I listened to their stories, I tried to understand how they could survive day after day. I met people who worked in the prison camps, people who have crossed the border and who fought for Pakistan. These people held in for so long the pain of war, without which no one tell, it was difficult to reconstruct that period, through these testimonies. The 1971 is the year that marked most of their memory, to the point that sometimes seems more real and tangible present. "

Few people know what he went through those people at that time and the writer wanted to a tribute to the people that time has died.

"People do not know that this conflict was a real massacre. But above all do not want this to be forgotten and not even want the people with whom I worked to put together the pieces of this novel. To me they were the real stars are their voices to be heard. "

Well, this book helped me to know a piece of history I knew little, and the story is the one that helps you understand what it's like a war for people's lives. Perhaps we should read more to open our horizons.
Above all, he learns to appreciate a woman who can fight in its fragility, it does for its children and eventually be able to say :

"I know what I did.
This war, which has taken so many other children, he saved mine. This age, which has burned so many other children, has not burned mine. I did not
permit "