"Provocative yet thoughtful and empathetic, this short emotionally intelligent novel about a small island of sex workers is incredibly powerful."
An intense energy and force thrums through the pages of this novel and the feelings it evoked will stay with me. A madam, herself a product of slavery, keeps and works women prisoners on a floating brothel; when an intelligent young woman is sold to the island she attempts to inspire an uprising. Author Tahmima Anam wrote Uprising fifteen years after visiting a floating brothel in Bangladesh as a journalist.
It is obvious that the experience had a huge impact and this novel speaks with an eloquence of the importance of protesting oppression and injustice. Short intense chapters are headed by pivotal moments and people, each chapter hitting with precision. The children of the women, young girls allowed to stay on the island, know their likely fate yet hope keeps them company.
There are exquisite moments of lightness, of innocence, and kindness that feel absolutely necessary against the storm of pain that is described by the children with such frank sincerity. The island itself and the weather and natural world surrounding it take on huge importance. The descriptive detailing of even the smallest of things is beautifully handled, it allows you to step foot on this island, to empathise, to almost touch understanding.
This feels incredibly powerful and important and so joins our LoveReading Star Books and is a Liz Pick of the Month. Fierce and resolute, Uprising sings a provocative and captivating song that deserves to be heard.
A 2026 BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN
| Primary Genre | Literary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
A 2026 BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMANAny moment now, we would grow up, and we would become them, waking late and hungry and with a job that had no nameOn 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.
Uprising features in the following genres: Book Club Recommendations, Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, Literary Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Sharing Diverse Voices, Shorter Reads, Narrative theme: Social issues, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Sexual abuse and harassment, Human trafficking
Hardback. £15.29, down from the £16.99 cover price. In Stock.
Uprising was written by Tahmima Anam and published by Canongate an imprint of Canongate Books
Uprising has 208 pages
£15.29, reduced from £16.99. In Stock.
