Product Description

Part autobiography, part travelogue, part anthropological study, this is an account of a Western woman living in a Muslim Bangladeshi village for 18 months. On an anthropological level, it demonstrates the beginnings of research in someone else's society, on a more general level, it can be read as a novel or a piece of travel writing. The author writes about the friends she made, the characters she met, the rituals she witnessed, about Islam as practised in that village, and about women living in Purdah. She describes trying, as a Western woman, to live the life of the village women.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #368280 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
'Beautifully and simply written ... the characters emerge in all their humanity, frailty and humour. Gardner's approach is refreshingly honest ... [she] neither patronizes nor glamourizes the people of Talukpar but repays their trust by conveying their lives and experiences with dignity and respect. Songs At The River's Edge is a jewel of a book and the memory of it will stay long in the reader's mind.' --New Internationalist 'In reading [it], you experience a profound sense of entering another community and seeing it from the inside. Gardner's evocative description[s] and her ability to convey the emotional intensity of its people make this a memorable book.' --Literary Review

Customer Reviews

Fascinating insight into rural Asia
This is the best book I've read this year. I took it out to Bangladesh with me when I went out for two months work in the rural south-east of the country, and spent the whole time immersed in what the people I saw were actually thinking about, what their lives were like, what their problems were...in a way that I couldn't have appreciated without the book. It is a fascinating, penetrating, revealing account of rural life in the country and is a must for any visitor, just as much as the Lonely Planet guide: it tells you about people, real life, real issues. It's difficult to put down and thoroughly engrossing - I can't recommend it enough. It's amazingly accurate, having been to the places Katy Gardner describes, and having met similar people. Classic travel reading.

more than a travel book...
Katy Gardner spent enough time with a family in Bangladesh to give us an account of life in a village that is fascinating, colourful and empathetic. She wears her anthropological training lightly and conveys the rhythms and reasons of the lives of her hosts so well. Makes tourism seem very thin and pale!