ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION FINALIST 2026
A 2026 BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN

'A miracle' SALMAN RUSHDIE
'Captivating, gripped me from the first page' ELIF SHAFAK
'An unflinching, violent storm of a novel' TASH AW
'Profound . . . Anam's best work yet' Financial Times
'Unwaveringly political and unflinchingly forthright' Guardian
'A dark, brazen fairytale' LEILA ABOULELA
'Part holy legend, part undeniable, illuminating prophecy of how we will overcome' V.V. GANESHANANTHAN

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 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.

"Anam's prose - a blend of rhapsody and cackling coarseness - is crystalline . . . Uprising is only a slim volume, but it throbs with mesmeric power" - * Telegraph *

"An incantatory and fiery new novel of female defiance . . . Uprising is a feminist novel and a protest novel. It is a coming-of-age novel, and a response to the climate crisis; a story of sisterhood . . . Unwaveringly political and unflinchingly forthright. Anam shows the power of rage and radical hope. A new world can burn bright from the fires of injustice - and here, it's the mothers that hold the match" - * Guardian *

"Anam's novel of rebellion is her finest to date . . . this fable of oppression draws on one of Bangladesh's real-life exploitative brothels as well as its revolutions . . . Thoughtful and restrained, this slim, profound book is Anam's best work yet" - * Financial Times *

"Uprising is extraordinary . . . A page-turner as well as a perfectly crafted work of art . . . A hymn to collective action" - * Harper's Bazaar *

"An urgent, collective-voice novel . . . I loved it" - * Observer *