Best of
Bangladesh

2006

তালাশ


Shaheen Akhtar - 2006
    She remembers the wetlands, with their mystery and darkness, across which her young brother Montuand she fled to escape the violence. She remembers the day her brother walked away, never to be seen again, lost to the war which claimed many ambitious, idealistic, patriotic young men, swallowing them up before they even knew the meaning of war. Shaheen Akhtar's mesmerizing and moving novel is set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh war of liberation and in her skilful hands,the war becomes a way to explore the violence done to women,and their courage, their tenderness, their heartbreak and betrayal and their search for love. Akhtar's is one of the younger voices to explore this hitherto hidden dimension of the history of Bangladesh. Talaash was awarded the Prothom Alo Literary Prize in 2004.

Adventures of Ghanada


Premendra Mitra - 2006
    This volume which contains which contains some of the most acclaimed Ghanada stories weave a mesmerising web where whacky fun is subtly blended with human emotions. All the stories have been ably translated by Lila Majumdar.

Life, Love and Assimilation


Kia Abdullah - 2006
    It tackles drug addiction, gender inequality, arranged marriage and religion but is ultimately a story about the love and freedom that is seldom afforded to young Asian women living between two cultures.

Breaking Ships


Roland Buerk - 2006
    When new labor laws and environmental standards came to Europe, the ship-breaking industry moved to places like Chittagong on the coast of Bangladesh-places where the lives of workers seem expendable, and the environment is someone else's problem. Breaking Ships follows the demise of the Asian Tiger, a ship destroyed at one of the twenty ship-breaking yards along the beaches of Chittagong. BBC Bangladesh correspondent Roland Buerk takes us through the process-from beaching the vessel to its final dissemination, from wealthy shipyard owners to poverty-stricken ship cutters, and from the economic benefits for Bangladesh to the pollution of its once pristine beaches.