When I first hear Tahmima Anam's voice, her American accent startles me. Her author bio says she was born in Dhaka, raised in Paris, Bangkok and New York, and now lives in London. But her writing contains the sensibilities of someone who has grown up in the milieu she so evocatively recreates. Tahmima spent two years in Bangladesh, researching her first novel A Golden Age. Published in 2007, it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel