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Uprising
Not yet published
Expected 21 May 26
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.
- GenresFiction
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication May 21, 2026
3 people are currently reading
756 people want to read
About the author
Tahmima Anam
22 books683 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
🏝️ 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.
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
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
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 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.
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.
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
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.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review:
While intrigued by the story description, I had the worst time keeping track of what was happening in the story. I'm not sure if it was my brain, translation, or just the writing style.
While intrigued by the story description, I had the worst time keeping track of what was happening in the story. I'm not sure if it was my brain, translation, or just the writing style.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is an intense read, shedding light on the horrors of a sinking island but a beautiful tale of hope
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
"Rights are things that belong to us.
Why should anything belong to you?
Because I was born. Because I breathe."
This is a powerful but also challenging exploration of abuse, resistance, the climate crisis and the digital age. I found it a really difficult read - even more so when I found out it's inspired by the real women of Banishanta in Bangladesh. It's absolutely devastating but also beautifully crafted. Some parts are so poetic that reading it is like reading a song.
I love how the majority of the book is written from the perspective of the collective children of the island - it adds a really interesting dimension to the story. The way different characters are gradually revealed and their stories woven into the larger narrative as the book progresses is also very effective.
I found one section particularly difficult to read and did find it tricky to pick up again after this point, though I did eventually finish it.
Overall, I found this an affecting and often painful read, and some readers may struggle even more than I did, but it was a breathtaking experience, and I'm still thinking about it long after finishing.
Thank you to Canongate and NetGalley for this eARC
Why should anything belong to you?
Because I was born. Because I breathe."
This is a powerful but also challenging exploration of abuse, resistance, the climate crisis and the digital age. I found it a really difficult read - even more so when I found out it's inspired by the real women of Banishanta in Bangladesh. It's absolutely devastating but also beautifully crafted. Some parts are so poetic that reading it is like reading a song.
I love how the majority of the book is written from the perspective of the collective children of the island - it adds a really interesting dimension to the story. The way different characters are gradually revealed and their stories woven into the larger narrative as the book progresses is also very effective.
I found one section particularly difficult to read and did find it tricky to pick up again after this point, though I did eventually finish it.
Overall, I found this an affecting and often painful read, and some readers may struggle even more than I did, but it was a breathtaking experience, and I'm still thinking about it long after finishing.
Thank you to Canongate and NetGalley for this eARC
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