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Uprising: Finalist for the Orwell Prize 2026
Any moment now, we would grow up, and we would become them, waking late and hungry and with a job that had no name
On a desolate, sinking island, a group of children witness their mothers living lives of cruelty and servitude.
Bought and sold by Amma, the sadistic madam who was once herself sold into slavery, the women have learned to accept their fate. Yet their children weave fantastic tales of escape, imagining that someday they will leave the island and enjoy a life of freedom.
When Kusum Khan, a young, educated woman from the city, is forcibly brought to the island, she too is subjected to Amma’s violent induction. Yet Kusum refuses to yield, and soon the collective complacency of her fellow prisoners turns into a ferocity and defiance. Together, they begin a rebellion that will upend their island, their world and the very order of things.
An earth-shattering drama of resistance and female power, Uprising gives voice to the silenced through the story of a revolution no one saw coming.
On a desolate, sinking island, a group of children witness their mothers living lives of cruelty and servitude.
Bought and sold by Amma, the sadistic madam who was once herself sold into slavery, the women have learned to accept their fate. Yet their children weave fantastic tales of escape, imagining that someday they will leave the island and enjoy a life of freedom.
When Kusum Khan, a young, educated woman from the city, is forcibly brought to the island, she too is subjected to Amma’s violent induction. Yet Kusum refuses to yield, and soon the collective complacency of her fellow prisoners turns into a ferocity and defiance. Together, they begin a rebellion that will upend their island, their world and the very order of things.
An earth-shattering drama of resistance and female power, Uprising gives voice to the silenced through the story of a revolution no one saw coming.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2026
About the author
Tahmima Anam
22 books690 followersTahmima Anam is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, and anthropologist. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Granta Best Young British Novelist, and winner of a Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her work has been published in Granta, The New York Times, and The Guardian. She was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and lives in London, where she is on the board of ROLI, a music technology startup founded by her husband.
The Startup Wife (07/13/2021) is her latest novel.
The Startup Wife (07/13/2021) is her latest novel.
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Uprising by Tahmima Anam is the latest novel from the award winning Bangladeshi writer. This is a dark, unflinching tale whose beating heart is Kusum Khan, a young woman forcibly bought to slavery at the hands of local madam Amma. Inspired by real events from the Bangladesh island of Banishanta, this is an extremely well-written engaging tale, which despite having such darkness at its core, doesn't lose sight of the light. Kusum is a beautifully drawn character and our beacon in the dark. I was thoroughly won over by this novel, even if some of it's subject matter is difficult to comprehend - Anam has done a superb job of balancing the subject matter against the poetry of the prose, and Uprising is an excellent novel .
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I don't usually read books about the suffering of women, not just because I am too soft for it, but I approach reading as an escape from reality, and children and women trapped and abused on a secluded island is a little too close to reality. But this book is beautifully written and leaves us a powerful message. An impact that stays with us long after it is finished.
I especially loved the children as a collective and the system as the antagonist, because how can I demonize anyone at all when Anam tells us all their stories with immense grace?
I especially loved the children as a collective and the system as the antagonist, because how can I demonize anyone at all when Anam tells us all their stories with immense grace?
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
She learned that when the University girls had marched, they had not just been protesting the Dictator, but the whole world. She learned that it was possible for a person to direct themselves at a very specific thing–the students and their jobs, for instance–and also at all the many things that stood in their way. Kusum wondered if she, too, could protest. If she could protest not only her presence here, on the island–but all the things that had brought her here. The man who had lied to her, the boats that contained the men who came to the island, the jobs that made the men angry, the hunger that drove everyone to do the ugly things they did, the need that had driven her parents to dream things for her, the factories that burned the coal that fuelled the brick ovens that clouded the skies that heated the air that melted the mountains that swelled the river that ate the shore and made the island a little bit smaller, a little bit poorer, every year. Was it within her to fight against all of those things? Didn’t the fights only belong in the city, in the mouths of the students? Didn’t the fights need those very streets, those very bodies and minds that had gone to school, that had grown up expecting things? Could anyone, anywhere, fight against the way things were–even Kusum, stolen from her life and everything that had been possible, her son denied his mother’s milk and eating the rice of another woman? Was it possible that Kusum could bring the fight here, to the island?
Finalist for the 2026 Orwell Prize
(which was the day after I read the book and which I fully expected as this is an excellent fit).
Tahmima Anam is a Bangladeshi-born British writer. Her 2007 Debut “A Golden Age”, set in the Bangladeshi War of Independence was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and 15 years picked as the 2007 representative on the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Reading list (just to give an idea of the calibre/prestige of that selection – other 2000s books included “White Teeth”, “Life of Pi”, “Small Island”, “Half A Yellow Sun” and “Wolf Hall”).
Her first three novels (which included “The Good Muslim” published in 2011 (and set in the mid 80s) and “The Bones of Grace” published in 2016) were part of a hard-hitting historical Bengal-trilogy and also saw her included on the 2013 Decennial Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.
Her fourth – “Start Up Wife” a light satire of the Tech industry (which she knows well from being on the Board of her husband’s tech firm) was something of a tonal departure – but perhaps less of a thematic one as the author at the time said “I’ve always been interested in women finding their voices, inhabiting their power, and taking charge of their lives, and this is a thread that runs through all my novels”
And that theme serves well as an introduction for this otherwise very different heavy-hitting novel – set on a fictionalised version of the real-life “floating brothel” Banishanta in Bangladesh – described in the opening chapter by the chorus of children who narrate most of the novel – as an island “at the [Southern] end of the county, in the middle of a river that emptied into the sea”, on its eastern side opposite a village (although with a psychological/exclusionary cultural distance much greater than the geographic one) and its west a small jetty for “customers” of their mothers to disembark. The Island itself is growing smaller and poorer due to sea level rise.
There is only limited naiveite in the children’s views – they know the customers pay their mothers for sex, they know their mothers are effectively in servitude (and economic debt) to Amma – the madam of the Island, they know that the women’s beliefs that either their customers or their long-missed families will one day rescue them fly in the face of reality. What they do believe in is the legend of the forest spirit of Bon Bibi – who they believe may one day rescue them from a fate their mothers are resigned to – partly due they know to the drugs Amma supplies them - and which they know is otherwise their terrible destiny too as they approach puberty.
When a particularly bad flood threatens Amma’s economical system she sends for a new girl – Kusum – and things for her and for the Island are changed inexorably as Kusum, after initially resisting her fate, brings her City knowledge of protest (from anti-dictator marches) to the Island and, after suffering trauma and disillusionment of her own leads the women into first their own sex-strike, then an attempt to own their own bodies (even if in a different form of online sex-work) and finally in a dirty protest in which they play on the prejudice of them being soiled and spoiled to literally repel those hoping to overturn their uprising.
The author through Kusum links the women (and children’s) sexually-trafficked predicament to a wider theme of both: injustice and sexual oppression – far from being the victims of just Amma the women come to realise that their sexually-subjugated status is sanctioned by both wider society and officialdom, and later even Kusum is forced to confront the way in which they are the deliberately sacrificed victims of a society mired in oppression and social shaming; climate change – with the depredations and degradation of the women being mirrored in and magnified by that of their environment.
The writing in the novel is uncompromising and incendiary – explicit in language and sexual references, the children again only too aware of their mother’s frankness. And the ending too is suitably stirring and uplifting for this memorable novel of poverty, patriarchy and protest.
My thanks to Canongate for an ARC via NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
🏝️ Sinking island at the edge of the world
👁️ Children as collective narrator and myth-makers
🌊 Trauma that is powerfully real
✊ Uprising from the ground up — no saviors
🌿 Folklore woven into resistance
💔 Mothers who wound and mothers who survive
⚖️ The system as villain
📖 Short, tight, devastating
📚 Shelf Placement
Power, Hunger, Embodiment
💭 Personal Reflections
I would give this ten stars if I could.
Uprising is set on a real place — a government-sanctioned brothel on a sinking island off the coast of Bangladesh. Tahmima Anam did not invent this island.
She writes in sentences that land like blows to the stomach. Not because they're graphic, though sometimes they are, but because they're precise and beautifully crafted. This book makes you feel every moment and ache.
Anam uses a riff on the Greek chorus to create a narrator that bridges hopelessness and hope: the children of the island, a collective "we", serve as narrator, speaking together across time. It works especially well here because the children occupy this particular position where they're hurt but not yet hopeless. They're willing to have dreams that the adults aren't. They're still willing to believe in fairy tales.
The weaving in and out of individual lives into that shared "we" of the children, as well as their mothers, is seamless. The children reach into the folklore of the Sundarbans to find a frame big enough for what they're living through. Mythology becomes a form of resistance and hope, a way to believe that fairy tales with happy endings are real.
And that isn't easy in a book filled with villains. And in this book men aren't the bad guys. I mean, they ARE the bad guys, but we see carefully how complicated naming villains is in each story of each individual. The system, we are told, is the true villain.
The engine of the story is how women inhabit the system, how they get recruited into perpetuating the very thing that destroyed them. None of it is pretty and easy. The book is unflinching about the fact that bullies start as victims, that victimhood and complicity are not mutually exclusive, that there is always another layer of women participating in the machinery of their own oppression.
In America right now we keep performing shock when women support systems that harm other women. This book is a quiet, precise rebuttal to that shock. It doesn't excuse anything but shows truth.
This is a story suggesting that through unity, through the power of togetherness, a collective voice can overcome. And that's what we want to believe, right? Anam makes you believe it.
At 208 pages it is perfectly paced and perfectly sized. Nothing is wasted. I finished it and immediately wanted to press it into the hands of everyone I know. Unfortunately we gotta wait for it to hit the shelves...
🌈 Representation
The women on the island are explicitly not a monolithic group. Bengali, Garo, Chakma, Santal — the author names the ethnic and Indigenous diversity of the women gathered there early and means it. They arrive from across the spectrum of Bangladeshi poverty and dispossession: farmers, city workers, women sold by husbands, women sold by fathers and mothers.
I'm reading as an outsider to Bangladeshi culture and can't speak to nuances a closer reader would catch.
🔍 Tropes & Power Lens
The system-as-villain framing here is complex. Individual men cause harm, but Anam is more interested in how coercion works structurally: the debt bondage, the isolation, the way power organizes itself so that women enforce the conditions of their own captivity.
The question running underneath everything is where survival ends and complicity begins. Anam doesn't answer it cleanly. That's the right choice.
The women's relationships with each other — tenderness, solidarity, betrayal — are rendered with enough complexity that no one gets to be purely victim or purely villain. That's difficult to pull off and she pulls it off.
⚠️ Content Warnings
Content warnings are non-exhaustive and reflect what stood out to me as a reader.
Sexual violence, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, debt bondage, physical abuse, forced prostitution, pregnancy loss, infant death, violence against women, substance use, parental betrayal.
⭐ Rating⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
⭐ 1 star: Did not work for me
⭐⭐ 2 stars: Had real problems
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars: Decent but didn't quite land
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars: Solid and enjoyable, some reservations
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars: Loved it, highly recommend
BookShrink ratings reflect my personal reading experience and apply to books read from 2025 onward.
Thank you to Scribner for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
👁️ Children as collective narrator and myth-makers
🌊 Trauma that is powerfully real
✊ Uprising from the ground up — no saviors
🌿 Folklore woven into resistance
💔 Mothers who wound and mothers who survive
⚖️ The system as villain
📖 Short, tight, devastating
📚 Shelf Placement
Power, Hunger, Embodiment
💭 Personal Reflections
I would give this ten stars if I could.
Uprising is set on a real place — a government-sanctioned brothel on a sinking island off the coast of Bangladesh. Tahmima Anam did not invent this island.
She writes in sentences that land like blows to the stomach. Not because they're graphic, though sometimes they are, but because they're precise and beautifully crafted. This book makes you feel every moment and ache.
Anam uses a riff on the Greek chorus to create a narrator that bridges hopelessness and hope: the children of the island, a collective "we", serve as narrator, speaking together across time. It works especially well here because the children occupy this particular position where they're hurt but not yet hopeless. They're willing to have dreams that the adults aren't. They're still willing to believe in fairy tales.
The weaving in and out of individual lives into that shared "we" of the children, as well as their mothers, is seamless. The children reach into the folklore of the Sundarbans to find a frame big enough for what they're living through. Mythology becomes a form of resistance and hope, a way to believe that fairy tales with happy endings are real.
And that isn't easy in a book filled with villains. And in this book men aren't the bad guys. I mean, they ARE the bad guys, but we see carefully how complicated naming villains is in each story of each individual. The system, we are told, is the true villain.
The engine of the story is how women inhabit the system, how they get recruited into perpetuating the very thing that destroyed them. None of it is pretty and easy. The book is unflinching about the fact that bullies start as victims, that victimhood and complicity are not mutually exclusive, that there is always another layer of women participating in the machinery of their own oppression.
In America right now we keep performing shock when women support systems that harm other women. This book is a quiet, precise rebuttal to that shock. It doesn't excuse anything but shows truth.
This is a story suggesting that through unity, through the power of togetherness, a collective voice can overcome. And that's what we want to believe, right? Anam makes you believe it.
At 208 pages it is perfectly paced and perfectly sized. Nothing is wasted. I finished it and immediately wanted to press it into the hands of everyone I know. Unfortunately we gotta wait for it to hit the shelves...
🌈 Representation
The women on the island are explicitly not a monolithic group. Bengali, Garo, Chakma, Santal — the author names the ethnic and Indigenous diversity of the women gathered there early and means it. They arrive from across the spectrum of Bangladeshi poverty and dispossession: farmers, city workers, women sold by husbands, women sold by fathers and mothers.
I'm reading as an outsider to Bangladeshi culture and can't speak to nuances a closer reader would catch.
🔍 Tropes & Power Lens
The system-as-villain framing here is complex. Individual men cause harm, but Anam is more interested in how coercion works structurally: the debt bondage, the isolation, the way power organizes itself so that women enforce the conditions of their own captivity.
The question running underneath everything is where survival ends and complicity begins. Anam doesn't answer it cleanly. That's the right choice.
The women's relationships with each other — tenderness, solidarity, betrayal — are rendered with enough complexity that no one gets to be purely victim or purely villain. That's difficult to pull off and she pulls it off.
⚠️ Content Warnings
Content warnings are non-exhaustive and reflect what stood out to me as a reader.
Sexual violence, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, debt bondage, physical abuse, forced prostitution, pregnancy loss, infant death, violence against women, substance use, parental betrayal.
⭐ Rating⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
⭐ 1 star: Did not work for me
⭐⭐ 2 stars: Had real problems
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars: Decent but didn't quite land
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars: Solid and enjoyable, some reservations
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars: Loved it, highly recommend
BookShrink ratings reflect my personal reading experience and apply to books read from 2025 onward.
Thank you to Scribner for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Uprising by Tahmima Anam is a powerful and memorable book that belies its slim page count. Set on a sinking island in India, populated by women sold and trafficked into working as prostitutes and their children and told from the perspective of those children, this is a book that seeks to give a voice to those who are too often silenced. Despite the difficult and sometimes brutal subject matter the book is never salacious , instead balancing on a knife edge the suffering of the women and the naivety (in some ways ) of the children who dream of a better future despite knowing deep down that they are likely to follow their mother's into the same line of work, on the island or elsewhere. They do not speak of the boy babies born on the island who disappear, occasionally to distant family members but more often sold to wealthy childless families, instead they speak of legends and fairytales and the magical and mysterious Bon Bibi , the forest sprit who will rescue them from the island. The women, cowed by the daily cruelties of Amma, the sadistic madam who controls them through drugs and various abuses mental, physical and financial see no hope for a better future until the arrival of Kusam Kahn, a young educated woman from the city, who manages to unite the woman, not an easy feat by any means, and ignite a rebellion that will change everything.
This book made me sad, it made me angry and in the end it made me proud. Kusum is no angel sent to save these women, in fact at times she comes close to falling into the familiar routines of Amma, though in a more modern way, but her indomitable spirit and her determination to get justice in some form , even though nothing could truly compensate these women for what they have endured, sees her willing to go to extreme measures. The theme of climate change was well integrated into the story too with the degradation of the island itself mirroring the experiences of the women who lived there.
The way the author could make me care so much about these women in such a short space of time was really impressive, I was fully immersed in their stories and their struggles and was rooting for their victory as though they were real people.
This is a book that will linger in the minds and hearts of those who read it.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.
This book made me sad, it made me angry and in the end it made me proud. Kusum is no angel sent to save these women, in fact at times she comes close to falling into the familiar routines of Amma, though in a more modern way, but her indomitable spirit and her determination to get justice in some form , even though nothing could truly compensate these women for what they have endured, sees her willing to go to extreme measures. The theme of climate change was well integrated into the story too with the degradation of the island itself mirroring the experiences of the women who lived there.
The way the author could make me care so much about these women in such a short space of time was really impressive, I was fully immersed in their stories and their struggles and was rooting for their victory as though they were real people.
This is a book that will linger in the minds and hearts of those who read it.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
When Canongate kindly gifted me a copy of this book to review i was unsure if it sounded like a book I'd read. Well l was wrong. When I tell you this is one of the best books l've read this year I mean it.
On a remote island, children grow up watching their mothers trapped in lives of abuse and control. They are ruled by Amma, a ruthless madam once sold into slavery herself, and while her background might be tragic it doesn't excuse how truly awful she is!
The women (or mothers as they are referred to in the book) have long accepted their fate, but their children dream of escape and freedom, they long to be rescued and leave the Island. Then everything changes when Kusum, a young woman from the city, is brought to the island against her will.
Refusing to submit, she sparks anger, courage, and rebellion among the women, leading them to challenge the brutal world that has kept them captive.
This is such a powerful story of resistance, survival, and female strength. It is not an easy read, there is graphic details about women suffering but Tahmima has given these fictional women a voice and their backstories need to be heard. Although a work of fiction it's not lost on me that suffering like this goes on around the world every day, so to read about this rebellion and the strength these woman found filled me with hope.
Kasum is such a force of nature and I loved her characters development. She had the most amazing strength and the way she looked out for the others was powerful. The short chapters made this such a quick read and I could not put it down. Although a tragic story it is an important one and I guarantee it's one that will stay with you for a long time.
This is an incredible read and I applaud Tahmima for sharing this story. It broke my heart, filled me full of rage and gave me hope all at the same time. I cannot stop thinking of it.
On a remote island, children grow up watching their mothers trapped in lives of abuse and control. They are ruled by Amma, a ruthless madam once sold into slavery herself, and while her background might be tragic it doesn't excuse how truly awful she is!
The women (or mothers as they are referred to in the book) have long accepted their fate, but their children dream of escape and freedom, they long to be rescued and leave the Island. Then everything changes when Kusum, a young woman from the city, is brought to the island against her will.
Refusing to submit, she sparks anger, courage, and rebellion among the women, leading them to challenge the brutal world that has kept them captive.
This is such a powerful story of resistance, survival, and female strength. It is not an easy read, there is graphic details about women suffering but Tahmima has given these fictional women a voice and their backstories need to be heard. Although a work of fiction it's not lost on me that suffering like this goes on around the world every day, so to read about this rebellion and the strength these woman found filled me with hope.
Kasum is such a force of nature and I loved her characters development. She had the most amazing strength and the way she looked out for the others was powerful. The short chapters made this such a quick read and I could not put it down. Although a tragic story it is an important one and I guarantee it's one that will stay with you for a long time.
This is an incredible read and I applaud Tahmima for sharing this story. It broke my heart, filled me full of rage and gave me hope all at the same time. I cannot stop thinking of it.
April 12, 2026
4.25 ⭐
Thank you @canongatebooks and @tahmima for this #gifted #ad #pr copy of this new release. Out in June - a must read!
The story is set on a sinking island, close to Bangladesh. Written from the point of view of the children and women exploited on the island, we hear mainly about two female main characters: Amma (a horrible woman, herself sold into slavery, who controls and exploits the girls) and Kusum (an educated hero who creates a rebellion). The story itself is dark and powerful. Relevant and bold. Uncomfortable. Unfathomable… Wholly unfair. The women’s options are limited but, as readers, we really get to feel the power of the women uniting, holding strong and fighting for their rights.
Influenced by the IRA women who protested their incarceration by smearing their menstrual blood on their prison walls, Tahmima was compelled and inspired by these life-or-death protests and used them to develop her own story about a group of women exploited, with no control and full of rage.
Although this book is under 200 pages, it packs a real punch. Please check trigger warnings as this book is harrowing to read from the beginning.
A favourite quote: ‘The sky, pressing down like a pair of hands around our throats, finally erupted and the water fell in heavy broken sheets. Our mother‘s danced in the rain.’
Despite the heavy themes, the book is full of hope and incredibly inspirational. A book that is definitely going to stay with me…
Thank you @canongatebooks and @tahmima for this #gifted #ad #pr copy of this new release. Out in June - a must read!
The story is set on a sinking island, close to Bangladesh. Written from the point of view of the children and women exploited on the island, we hear mainly about two female main characters: Amma (a horrible woman, herself sold into slavery, who controls and exploits the girls) and Kusum (an educated hero who creates a rebellion). The story itself is dark and powerful. Relevant and bold. Uncomfortable. Unfathomable… Wholly unfair. The women’s options are limited but, as readers, we really get to feel the power of the women uniting, holding strong and fighting for their rights.
Influenced by the IRA women who protested their incarceration by smearing their menstrual blood on their prison walls, Tahmima was compelled and inspired by these life-or-death protests and used them to develop her own story about a group of women exploited, with no control and full of rage.
Although this book is under 200 pages, it packs a real punch. Please check trigger warnings as this book is harrowing to read from the beginning.
A favourite quote: ‘The sky, pressing down like a pair of hands around our throats, finally erupted and the water fell in heavy broken sheets. Our mother‘s danced in the rain.’
Despite the heavy themes, the book is full of hope and incredibly inspirational. A book that is definitely going to stay with me…
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Uprising is one of the most resilient and powerful books on female rage I’ve ever read. Tahmima Anam takes a premise that could easily have been sensationalised — a brothel run by a madam pimp and the women trapped within it — and instead delivers a story that is unflinching, humane, and politically sharp. The novel traces the lives of women whose paths into prostitution are shaped by coercion, betrayal, and the relentless control of patriarchal power, until everything shifts with the arrival of Kusum, an educated young woman who becomes a catalyst for rebellion and solidarity.
What struck me most was how Anam layers the narrative with a critique of capitalism’s environmental destruction. Rising sea levels wipe out the women’s livelihoods, pushing them deeper into poverty while the men who run their world remain untouched. It’s a stark reminder of how gendered oppression and economic systems intertwine, leaving the most vulnerable to bear the heaviest burdens.
This was a tough read — emotionally, thematically, morally — but it feels devastatingly true to the experiences of so many women whose stories rarely make it to the page. Uprising refuses to be ignored. These voices deserve to be heard, amplified, and remembered. It’s a testament to resistance, collective power, and the fierce determination of women who refuse to stay silent.
Thank you @netgalley and @Canongate for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest unedited review. Uprising is out on 21 May 2026.
What struck me most was how Anam layers the narrative with a critique of capitalism’s environmental destruction. Rising sea levels wipe out the women’s livelihoods, pushing them deeper into poverty while the men who run their world remain untouched. It’s a stark reminder of how gendered oppression and economic systems intertwine, leaving the most vulnerable to bear the heaviest burdens.
This was a tough read — emotionally, thematically, morally — but it feels devastatingly true to the experiences of so many women whose stories rarely make it to the page. Uprising refuses to be ignored. These voices deserve to be heard, amplified, and remembered. It’s a testament to resistance, collective power, and the fierce determination of women who refuse to stay silent.
Thank you @netgalley and @Canongate for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest unedited review. Uprising is out on 21 May 2026.
May 20, 2026
“Lucky. That’s what they called it when they stole the whole world out of your arms.”
One thing I love most about books is being educated about things I didn’t know about. Uprising is an incredible work of literary fiction and not at least made so by the fact that it’s reflecting a very real issue. Women being abducted to become sex workers on an island in the midst of a river in the bengal delta. Once they are there the shame that is attached to what they’re being forced into means they can never leave, being shunned by their families and society. The abuse, degradation and sheer hopelessness is palpable.
Told mostly through the eyes of the children (only female children are able to stay) of these stolen and abused women, it’s almost abstract in its narrative but also very explicit in parts. It’s incredibly hard to read and equally important to be told the way it is, it’s one of those books that I couldn’t stop thinking about at all.
Aside from the humanitarian and political issues raised, the story is also highlighting the environmental impact of climate change on the area.
I would be surprised if this book isn’t going to win one or some major book prizes. It’s incredibly impactful, poignant and thought-provoking. Small but mighty, a book I urge you all to read and cannot recommend highly enough!
One thing I love most about books is being educated about things I didn’t know about. Uprising is an incredible work of literary fiction and not at least made so by the fact that it’s reflecting a very real issue. Women being abducted to become sex workers on an island in the midst of a river in the bengal delta. Once they are there the shame that is attached to what they’re being forced into means they can never leave, being shunned by their families and society. The abuse, degradation and sheer hopelessness is palpable.
Told mostly through the eyes of the children (only female children are able to stay) of these stolen and abused women, it’s almost abstract in its narrative but also very explicit in parts. It’s incredibly hard to read and equally important to be told the way it is, it’s one of those books that I couldn’t stop thinking about at all.
Aside from the humanitarian and political issues raised, the story is also highlighting the environmental impact of climate change on the area.
I would be surprised if this book isn’t going to win one or some major book prizes. It’s incredibly impactful, poignant and thought-provoking. Small but mighty, a book I urge you all to read and cannot recommend highly enough!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Tahmima Anam writes here about appalling darkness — trafficking, brutality, inherited misery — yet does so with a surprisingly light touch. That is not to say the book is light, because it certainly is not, but she has the rare skill of keeping the prose agile, lucid and even playful in places without ever trivializing what is happening. Few writers can manage that balance.
The use of the first person plural is especially effective. The children speak as a collective “we”, creating a chorus of witness, fear, gossip and hope. It gives the novel momentum and an unusual intimacy, while also reminding us how little individuality this world allows. These children are growing up in a system already designed for them.
What struck me most is the tragic fact that Anam did not need to invent this setting. The novel is inspired by a real floating brothel community off the coast of Bangladesh, which gives the story an extra weight and sadness. However heightened or fable-like parts of the book may feel, the reality beneath it is worse.
Short, sharp and unsettling, this is a novel of female resistance told with intelligence and control. Dark subject matter, deftly handled.
Hope to see this on the Booker longlist
The use of the first person plural is especially effective. The children speak as a collective “we”, creating a chorus of witness, fear, gossip and hope. It gives the novel momentum and an unusual intimacy, while also reminding us how little individuality this world allows. These children are growing up in a system already designed for them.
What struck me most is the tragic fact that Anam did not need to invent this setting. The novel is inspired by a real floating brothel community off the coast of Bangladesh, which gives the story an extra weight and sadness. However heightened or fable-like parts of the book may feel, the reality beneath it is worse.
Short, sharp and unsettling, this is a novel of female resistance told with intelligence and control. Dark subject matter, deftly handled.
Hope to see this on the Booker longlist
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The book follows Kusum, a young girl from a poor family in Bangladesh. Like many others, she is sold into sexual slavery and ends up in an island brothel run by a ruthless madam who terrorises her workers and their children.
The story is brutal and visceral. It spares the reader nothing and forces a deeply unsettling experience. The author brings Kusum and her fellow women to life with writing that echoes Greek tragedy in its intensity and lack of compromise. Most striking is that, amid the horror and heartbreak, the resilience of the human spirit still offers a measure of hope.
The book is a stark indictment of society at its worst: patriarchal systems where women are devalued, bystanders who ignore abuse, men who exploit women in private while condemning them in public, institutions that look away for profit, and a global audience willing to consume explicit material without regard for how it is produced.
This is a book more people should read. Its message is made more powerful by the author’s skill and conviction.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
The story is brutal and visceral. It spares the reader nothing and forces a deeply unsettling experience. The author brings Kusum and her fellow women to life with writing that echoes Greek tragedy in its intensity and lack of compromise. Most striking is that, amid the horror and heartbreak, the resilience of the human spirit still offers a measure of hope.
The book is a stark indictment of society at its worst: patriarchal systems where women are devalued, bystanders who ignore abuse, men who exploit women in private while condemning them in public, institutions that look away for profit, and a global audience willing to consume explicit material without regard for how it is produced.
This is a book more people should read. Its message is made more powerful by the author’s skill and conviction.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Have you ever caught yourself thinking, "Life would be so much better if women could just form our own society"? If so, consider this the dark, devastating side of the feminist utopia—a world where female leaders prove to be just as brutal and exploitative as the men they replaced.
Uprising reads like an inverted fairy tale, steeped in mythmaking and a haunting timelessness. It fearlessly exposes the traumatic realities of women who have been cast aside and sold into slavery for a pittance. The best way I can describe it is Lord of the Flies meets 1001 Nights: a story that feels entirely foreign, yet chillingly familiar.
Anam’s voice leaps off the page, managing to conjure a vivid world and incredibly dynamic characters all within a remarkably slim volume. I have so much respect for her narrative restraint here. Where other authors would undoubtedly be tempted to drag out such a complex world-building exercise, Anam understands perfectly that a novel this tense and difficult to stomach would easily wear out its welcome if lengthened. It’s a tight, devastating, and entirely gripping read.
Uprising reads like an inverted fairy tale, steeped in mythmaking and a haunting timelessness. It fearlessly exposes the traumatic realities of women who have been cast aside and sold into slavery for a pittance. The best way I can describe it is Lord of the Flies meets 1001 Nights: a story that feels entirely foreign, yet chillingly familiar.
Anam’s voice leaps off the page, managing to conjure a vivid world and incredibly dynamic characters all within a remarkably slim volume. I have so much respect for her narrative restraint here. Where other authors would undoubtedly be tempted to drag out such a complex world-building exercise, Anam understands perfectly that a novel this tense and difficult to stomach would easily wear out its welcome if lengthened. It’s a tight, devastating, and entirely gripping read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Uprising by Tahmima Anam was a difficult but powerful read, far outside my usual comfort zone. The story takes place on a desolate island where women and girls are sold into a brutal life controlled by the ruthless Amma. Forced into prostitution, the women endure constant violence and have no real choices. Men arrive by ship to use and abuse them, while the young girls growing up on the island fear they are destined for the same fate.
Part of the story is told through the eyes of these young girls, which made the horrors of their world even more heartbreaking. When Kasum arrives, everything begins to shift. Before being sold, she was a rebel and protester, and she refuses to completely surrender hope. She begins imagining a way the women might fight back and free themselves, even in the face of overwhelming cruelty and despair.
This novel is filled with suffering and difficult subject matter, making it an emotionally heavy read. Still, it is beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking. The themes of survival, resistance, and the strength of women stayed with me long after I finished the book. While it was hard to read at times, I believe it was absolutely worth it.
Part of the story is told through the eyes of these young girls, which made the horrors of their world even more heartbreaking. When Kasum arrives, everything begins to shift. Before being sold, she was a rebel and protester, and she refuses to completely surrender hope. She begins imagining a way the women might fight back and free themselves, even in the face of overwhelming cruelty and despair.
This novel is filled with suffering and difficult subject matter, making it an emotionally heavy read. Still, it is beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking. The themes of survival, resistance, and the strength of women stayed with me long after I finished the book. While it was hard to read at times, I believe it was absolutely worth it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate Books for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
“She said that someday, there would be other women in the world with red streaks on their foreheads, maybe not on an island like ours, but imprisoned in some other way, and maybe these women would use our story to say no to something else in their lives that they found they could no longer stomach.”
This book is a meditation on the quiet devastation of being born a woman in a world that only takes. This is also a story of resistance, the kind of resistance paid for with blood and sweat and broken bones. The story takes on a mythical quality while still anchored to the gritty and brutal reality of the women who are trapped on the island. I found that the lyrical form of storytelling, such as using the children of the island as chorus/narrators, added to the universality of this story, and yet the narrative was still situated deeply in the particular context of Bangladesh. This is a haunting read, a tale of female rage that demands to be heard.
“She said that someday, there would be other women in the world with red streaks on their foreheads, maybe not on an island like ours, but imprisoned in some other way, and maybe these women would use our story to say no to something else in their lives that they found they could no longer stomach.”
This book is a meditation on the quiet devastation of being born a woman in a world that only takes. This is also a story of resistance, the kind of resistance paid for with blood and sweat and broken bones. The story takes on a mythical quality while still anchored to the gritty and brutal reality of the women who are trapped on the island. I found that the lyrical form of storytelling, such as using the children of the island as chorus/narrators, added to the universality of this story, and yet the narrative was still situated deeply in the particular context of Bangladesh. This is a haunting read, a tale of female rage that demands to be heard.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This story is absolutely heart-wrenching. The subject matter is incredibly heavy, centering on women who are sold into prostitution and trapped in a cycle they cannot escape, bound by debts they have no real hope of ever repaying to their madam, Amma. They live in isolation on a sunken island, their children growing up surrounded by and exposed to the realities of their mothers’ lives.
It’s difficult to say much more without giving anything away, but this is a short read that carries a lot of emotional weight. While it is deeply painful, there are also threads of hope woven throughout.
The structure can feel a bit disorienting at first, as each chapter shifts to a different character, but it doesn’t take long for the pieces to come together in a meaningful way.
This is the kind of book that stays with you. I definitely need something lighter after this, but I am very interested in exploring more from this author.
Thank you NetGalley & Scribner for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
It’s difficult to say much more without giving anything away, but this is a short read that carries a lot of emotional weight. While it is deeply painful, there are also threads of hope woven throughout.
The structure can feel a bit disorienting at first, as each chapter shifts to a different character, but it doesn’t take long for the pieces to come together in a meaningful way.
This is the kind of book that stays with you. I definitely need something lighter after this, but I am very interested in exploring more from this author.
Thank you NetGalley & Scribner for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Uprising by Tahmima Anam is an interesting read. The beginning sucked me in quickly, in the best way possible. The story is told from the POV of a child who lives on an island with a conclave of women who are destined for a life of prostitution and servitude to men who visit the island. The women do not enjoy their lives, but they also feel indebted to Amma, who pays for everything and helps care for them and their children. Until a new girl arrives, becomes pregnant, and has her son ripped away from her to live with the father and his wife on the mainland. This event starts the revolt, the uprising. The women band together in various ways to free themselves from their lives.
Honestly, this book started and ended great, but the middle was a little tough for me to get through. I was getting "Lord of the Flies" vibes from this book, but with female power and pride. It leaves one thinking about how one becomes a leader of a group...and also if we should always trust those who lead.
Honestly, this book started and ended great, but the middle was a little tough for me to get through. I was getting "Lord of the Flies" vibes from this book, but with female power and pride. It leaves one thinking about how one becomes a leader of a group...and also if we should always trust those who lead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
*Received as an advance copy through NetGalley, thank you very much NG!*
I very much enjoyed this book. So short (191 pages) but any longer and it wouldn’t have had the same effect. This book follows the women living on a remote island that are trafficked, with boats of men showing up on the island daily. The young girls that also inhabit this island are observing the lives of the older women and live in fear of the day they will also be turned into sex slaves.
The matter-of-fact tone of the writing made this novel even more effective, to me. There was very little emotion behind the words, in fact no direct quotations were used, and it made for a stark description of the lives these women led. At times it reminded me of Tender is the Flesh and I Who Have Never Known Men in its descriptions, which made it all the more powerful.
It is not a happy book, so don’t go in planning on having a good time. It is a tough sit throughout, but a powerful read nonetheless.
I very much enjoyed this book. So short (191 pages) but any longer and it wouldn’t have had the same effect. This book follows the women living on a remote island that are trafficked, with boats of men showing up on the island daily. The young girls that also inhabit this island are observing the lives of the older women and live in fear of the day they will also be turned into sex slaves.
The matter-of-fact tone of the writing made this novel even more effective, to me. There was very little emotion behind the words, in fact no direct quotations were used, and it made for a stark description of the lives these women led. At times it reminded me of Tender is the Flesh and I Who Have Never Known Men in its descriptions, which made it all the more powerful.
It is not a happy book, so don’t go in planning on having a good time. It is a tough sit throughout, but a powerful read nonetheless.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Such a hard read, but so visceral, brutal, shocking and ultimately galvanising.
Inspired by the real women of Banishanta, Bangaldesh, Uprising is a fiercely told story of female subjugation and power as a rebellion ignites amongst a community of sex workers on an isolated island that is slowly being drowned by the rivers surrounding it.
A tale of victims victimising others victims, patriarchal and matriarchal violence, myth and tradition, and women playing within the net of power and struggling to break free of their chains.
Told from the perspectives of the female children living on the island, alternating with the mothers and the men who visit them, this choral novel sings the songs of resistance and defiance. A story I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
Inspired by the real women of Banishanta, Bangaldesh, Uprising is a fiercely told story of female subjugation and power as a rebellion ignites amongst a community of sex workers on an isolated island that is slowly being drowned by the rivers surrounding it.
A tale of victims victimising others victims, patriarchal and matriarchal violence, myth and tradition, and women playing within the net of power and struggling to break free of their chains.
Told from the perspectives of the female children living on the island, alternating with the mothers and the men who visit them, this choral novel sings the songs of resistance and defiance. A story I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available November 2026.
Whew, I had to go outside and touch grass after finishing this harrowing read. Following the real story of a group of prostitutes and children living in a floating island near Mongal port in rural Bangladesh, Tahmima Anam's UPRISING does not shy away from the grisly details. There is so much pain, amplified all the more because we are seeing it through the perspective of the womens' children in a collective voice. No one is left blameless, not even the reader. There's interesting dialogue here about technology and ownership, women's role in society, and generational trauma. Definitely a read that sears itself onto your soul.
Available November 2026.
Whew, I had to go outside and touch grass after finishing this harrowing read. Following the real story of a group of prostitutes and children living in a floating island near Mongal port in rural Bangladesh, Tahmima Anam's UPRISING does not shy away from the grisly details. There is so much pain, amplified all the more because we are seeing it through the perspective of the womens' children in a collective voice. No one is left blameless, not even the reader. There's interesting dialogue here about technology and ownership, women's role in society, and generational trauma. Definitely a read that sears itself onto your soul.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What happens to the children of women caught in a man's world. This book is real, raw, and haunting. I appreciate the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy provided by the author and Netgalley.
Written from the perspective of a child sold into trafficking, I was impressed with the amount of information the author provided for what it might be like if this happened to someone you knew in Bangledesh.
I loved the setting and the characters. I also loved how the book ended.
I just wanted more... more emotion. I am rating this 3.5. stars because I wanted to feel more of what the characters would be feeling in that situation. I believe a lot of scholars will enjoy this brave look at life in human trafficking from a childs perspective.
Written from the perspective of a child sold into trafficking, I was impressed with the amount of information the author provided for what it might be like if this happened to someone you knew in Bangledesh.
I loved the setting and the characters. I also loved how the book ended.
I just wanted more... more emotion. I am rating this 3.5. stars because I wanted to feel more of what the characters would be feeling in that situation. I believe a lot of scholars will enjoy this brave look at life in human trafficking from a childs perspective.
May 12, 2026
A beautiful and bruising book, full of rich characters and deep pain. The trauma was relentless, with graphic descriptions being mixed with childlike wonder, creating a haunting and at times upsetting feeling while reading.
I loved Anam’s writing from the start, it was lively and vivid and painted a clear picture of the island and the women. The narration style was clever by giving a voice to the children and the women before the island, but never during, a painful reminder of their lack of control.
Powerful and a must read for all women out there, I hope to see this talked about long after its publication date.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Uprising #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I loved Anam’s writing from the start, it was lively and vivid and painted a clear picture of the island and the women. The narration style was clever by giving a voice to the children and the women before the island, but never during, a painful reminder of their lack of control.
Powerful and a must read for all women out there, I hope to see this talked about long after its publication date.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Uprising #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
March 30, 2026
This was a hard book, but an important one. Uprising was written lyrically, almost like poetry or prose, but also had a narrative structure to it. It follows a group of women living on an island who were forced into prostitution and one woman, Kusum, who arrives and sparks an uprising.
“What happens to the body when it is no longer beaten? … We were covered in fur instead of spikes. Instead of pricking each other, we were in our cocoons, warm and safe.”
I found this book equal parts devastating and hopeful.
✨4.5 stars rounded up.
Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for this e-arc. Uprising comes out May 21, 2026.
“What happens to the body when it is no longer beaten? … We were covered in fur instead of spikes. Instead of pricking each other, we were in our cocoons, warm and safe.”
I found this book equal parts devastating and hopeful.
✨4.5 stars rounded up.
Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for this e-arc. Uprising comes out May 21, 2026.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I am normally a freight train reader - I plow through books. Uprising was a conundrum for me because I had to take breaks to emotionally process.
It’s a short book, but it took me a bit of time to get through. This novel is so good, but also very gut wrenching and graphic. Make sure you’re in the right head space to read about women being sold and the abuse that comes along with that.
I loved the narrator POV, it was refreshing and unexpected. It felt like part novel, party history, part myth. I feel this book would will make it into college level required reading lists and university course’s syllabi rather quickly.
It’s a short book, but it took me a bit of time to get through. This novel is so good, but also very gut wrenching and graphic. Make sure you’re in the right head space to read about women being sold and the abuse that comes along with that.
I loved the narrator POV, it was refreshing and unexpected. It felt like part novel, party history, part myth. I feel this book would will make it into college level required reading lists and university course’s syllabi rather quickly.
March 22, 2026
“But it was also the whole world of men, all of whom would prefer a girl to be on an island, selling herself than causing trouble among them. It’s not just one man, it’s the way things work, she said.”
this book, following a group of women forced into prostitution on an island and their uprising, was such a gorgeous and raw read. it truly left me feeling both sick and hopeful.
i got to read this as an advanced readers copy, but once this comes out in may i truly think everyone should read it. so so so beautiful and devastating.
this book, following a group of women forced into prostitution on an island and their uprising, was such a gorgeous and raw read. it truly left me feeling both sick and hopeful.
i got to read this as an advanced readers copy, but once this comes out in may i truly think everyone should read it. so so so beautiful and devastating.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book is definitely heartbreaking and will have you feeling lots of emotions, but it is so well written and a story that needed to be told. It was very hard to hear about the way the woman and children were treated on the island, but the “uprising” was so powerful and more impactful in the end, than it seemed like it was going to be at times. This book was great at really showing you how one person can bring so much light to something dark. It’s really inspiring and such a well written book on such a heartbreaking, but very true story.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I couldn't put Anam's upcoming novel, Uprising, down. I like her oeuvre so I may be biased, but this story of resistance will resonate in our current era of protests. All the women and children whose voices we hear in this novel represent those silenced by a patriarchal status quo and a neocapitalist system that disregards not only women and other minorities but also the environment and the non-human. Anam’s ecofeminist lens makes for a powerful symbolic read.
April 20, 2026
I was so incredibly angry while reading this 'too true' story.
Why are humans so awful to each other? Why do we become animals towards each other and incite violence when given free reign to do so? Why not help, why not develop and practice empathy?
This story needs to be everywhere and everyone NEEDS to read it. Such important topics, and unfortunately the story of the island exists. It exists for those girls that are there today with no option of leaving, no glimmer of hope of escaping, no getting out of their enslavement debt to become sexual objects for these despicable men.
Why can't men leave women alone? Why do these awful men pick the young girls, abuse their mothers, and discard their wives? Why do they act that they must have sexual encounters with women other than their wives and then have the audacity to look at these workers as LESS THAN.
The rage. The emotions. The brave young girl that changed it all for them. The way she was given up, sold, to then standing strong on that shoreline, braving the storm that would engulf her but not letting the matron go. Such an incredible story, my gosh. The writing was beautiful, it was to the point, it was raw and showed how low humans can get toward other humans in non ideal conditions.
Thank you to the publisher, author, for letting me review and read as an arc on netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Why are humans so awful to each other? Why do we become animals towards each other and incite violence when given free reign to do so? Why not help, why not develop and practice empathy?
This story needs to be everywhere and everyone NEEDS to read it. Such important topics, and unfortunately the story of the island exists. It exists for those girls that are there today with no option of leaving, no glimmer of hope of escaping, no getting out of their enslavement debt to become sexual objects for these despicable men.
Why can't men leave women alone? Why do these awful men pick the young girls, abuse their mothers, and discard their wives? Why do they act that they must have sexual encounters with women other than their wives and then have the audacity to look at these workers as LESS THAN.
The rage. The emotions. The brave young girl that changed it all for them. The way she was given up, sold, to then standing strong on that shoreline, braving the storm that would engulf her but not letting the matron go. Such an incredible story, my gosh. The writing was beautiful, it was to the point, it was raw and showed how low humans can get toward other humans in non ideal conditions.
Thank you to the publisher, author, for letting me review and read as an arc on netgalley. All opinions are my own.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2026
What a deeply moving, tragic book this was! Reading the synopsis intrigued me but I had no idea how good it was going to be!! Books like these are why I love women’s fiction. The prose is so pretty while telling a heart wrenching story of redemption. I can’t say enough good things about it so I’m rating it 4.4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Tahmima Anam for the chance to read an eARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
All the rage in me wouldn't be enough to describe how this book made me feel! At times I really had to put it down and breath, take a walk, or something! Definitely don't pick up without checking your TW!
The fact that this is inspired by true events boils my blood! Tahmima does an exceptional job taking you and dropping you exactly where the characters are at emotionally, physically, and mentally!
I'm angry, distraught, frustrated, hopeful, pained, and everything in between..
The fact that this is inspired by true events boils my blood! Tahmima does an exceptional job taking you and dropping you exactly where the characters are at emotionally, physically, and mentally!
I'm angry, distraught, frustrated, hopeful, pained, and everything in between..
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
An intense and dark book that ultimately is a tale of hope. It resonates within the current climate where women are second class citizens and Protest their unrest. I felt the end was a bit abrupt. I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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