Anam was born on 8 October 1975 in Dhaka to Mahfuz Anam and Shaheen Anam. At the age of 2, she moved to Paris when both of her parents joined UNESCO as employees. She grew up in Paris, New York and Bangkok, learning the story of the Bangladesh Liberation War from her father who said he took some training to fight in 1971 but East Pakistan became independent by then. Her father was not a shongram fighter.[4][5][6][7]
In March 2007, Anam's first novel, A Golden Age, was published by John Murray. Inspired by her parents, she set the novel during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was a finalist for the Costa First Novel Award. The novel tells the story of a woman named Rehana Haque during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971.[10] She had also researched the war during her post-graduation career. For the benefit of her research, she stayed in Bangladesh for two years and interviewed hundreds of war fighters, known as shongram fighers. She also worked on the set of Tareque and Catherine Masud’s critically acclaimed film Matir Moina (The Clay Bird), which reflects the events during that war.[11]
In 2021, her novel The Startup Wife was published by Canongate Books. It was selected as a Best Book of 2021 by the Observer, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, Red and the Daily Mail, and shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2022.[23][24][25]
In 2022, Anam gave a TEDx talk entitled "The Power of Holding Silence: Making the Workplace Work for Women".[26] That same year, Anam's debut, A Golden Age, was chosen for the Queen’s jubilee book list, a list of 70 books from across the Commonwealth marking the seven decades of her reign.[27]
Personal life
In 2010, she married American inventor Roland O. Lamb, whom she met at Harvard University. The couple has a son named Rumi.[17][28] Rumi was born premature and for five years refused to eat – an ordeal Anam has written about.[29] As of 2011, she lived in London.[30]
^Bergquist, Karin (2007). "Mahfuz Anam". Culturebase. Archived from the original on 3 February 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2007. Outspoken editor from Bangladesh