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Uprising

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Uprising

By: Tahmima Anam
Narrated by: Ayesha Dharker
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About this listen

A 2026 BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN

'An unflinching, violent storm of a novel' TASH AW
'Extraordinary' SALMAN RUSHDIE
'A dark, brazen fairytale' LEILA ABOULELA

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.

©2026 Tahmima Anam (P)2026 Canongate Books Ltd
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

A fierce, bold novel that is tender towards its subjects and unsparing in its challenge to us as readers: to see the dispossessed of the world as Anam does, as fully, beautifully, heartbreakingly human (MONICA ALI)
At once ferocious and beautiful, told in incantatory prose, this is a vital, unflinching and unforgettable novel. That it's about an ongoing and age-old horror makes it all the more extraordinary (MIRZA WAHEED)
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