The best known books set in each country: Bangladesh revisited

See here for methodology. Back when I started this project, I was simply recording the top eight books tagged as being in each country by users of on Goodreads and LibraryThing, and then recording which didn’t really qualify. I have switched now to a system where I disqualify the relevant books before constructing my league table, so I’m going back to Bangladesh with an updated table.

When I first did this list in June, the writer of the leading book actually set in Bangladesh was on bail following a politically motivated conviction for labor law violations, and facing a six month prison sentence. Now, at the age of 84, he is literally running the country as Chief Advisor to the Government (Chief Adviser is the Bangladeshi term for the leader of a civilian government that has not come to power through elections).

Title	Author	Goodreads raters	LibraryThing owners
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty	Muhammad Yunus	10,230	1,303
The Newlyweds	Nell Freudenberger	9,430	567
A Golden Age	Tahmima Anam	5,561	718
The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali	Sabina Khan	9,034	399
Lajja: Shame	Taslima Nasrin	5,452	421
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism	Muhammad Yunus	3,180	602
Rickshaw Girl	Mitali Perkins	1,934	804
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide	Gary J. Bass	2,384	322

Much more so than any other country I have looked at, the literature that Goodreads and LibraryThing users identify with Bangladesh is largely about the emigrant experience, or about the Indian side of the Bengali-speaking zone. I have never had to exclude so many books to reach a total of eight that are actually set in the country I am considering, and even then I am not completely sure about three of the eight. I’m giving The Newlyweds and The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali passes because it sounds like a bit more than half of them are actually set in Bangladesh, though both have substantial chunks set in America; and The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, by Gary K. Bass, describes the American government involvement with the Liberation War, but I’m giving it a pass because it is at least about Bangladesh.

I excluded no less than thirteen books which had been frequently given the tag “Bangladesh” by Goodreads and LibraryThing users. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith, Brick Lane and Love Marriage, by Monica Ali, and Bitter Sweets, by Roopa Farooki, are all set in London. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie, is mainly set in India, though with a memorable section in Bangladesh. The Hungry Tide, by Amitav Ghosh, is set in the Sundarban islands, but mainly on the Indian side. The Henna Wars and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, by Adiba Jaigirdar, are both set in Dublin. The Shadow Lines, by Amitav Ghosh again, is about the consequences of the creation of Bangladesh, but mainly told from Calcutta and London. Himalaya, by Michael Palin, looks at all of South Asia. In the Light of What We Know, by Zia Haider Rahman, is set in many different countries. The Startup Wife, by Tahmima Anam, and Ask Me No Questions, by Marina Budhos, are set in the USA.

I should say that these all sound like excellent books, and I’ll keep an eye out for them.

(Sorry not to see Sultana’s Dream scoring well; surprised not to see Tagore, but I guess he is not in the bestseller category.)

This exercise has also exposed some huge differences between LibraryThing and Goodreads, where a couple of authors have massively more fans on GR than on LT. (I’m giving the titles of the published English translations, rather than the English translations of the Bengali titles, if you see what I mean.) I’ve had this with a couple of other indigenous authors in other countries, but I don’t recall any previous case where visibility on Goodreads was around 200 times the LibraryThing score.

Title	Author	Goodreads raters	LibraryThing owners
জোছনা ও জননীর গল্প / Liberation	Humayun Ahmed	4,476	17
নন্দিত নরকে / In Blissful Hell	Humayun Ahmed	3,799	20
একাত্তরের দিনগুলি / Of Blood and Fire	Jahanara Imam	2,823	13

If these three books had LT owners in the same ratio to GR raters as most of the others, they would easily have made it into my top eight. জোছনা ও জননীর গল্প / Liberation and একাত্তরের দিনগুলি / Of Blood and Fire are both set during the Liberation War. নন্দিত নরকে / In Blissful Hell was written in 1970, so the war hadn’t happened yet; it is described in one review as a work of magical realism.

Next up: return to the Philippines.

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The best known books set in each country: Bangladesh revisited

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