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Brotherless Night
In this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.
Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K's invitation to work as a medic at the field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors, a Tamil feminist and dissident, invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.
Set during the early years of Sri Lanka's three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman's moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.
Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K's invitation to work as a medic at the field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors, a Tamil feminist and dissident, invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.
Set during the early years of Sri Lanka's three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman's moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published January 3, 2023
About the author
V.V. Ganeshananthan
8 books167 followersV. V. Ganeshananthan is the author of Brotherless Night and Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize and named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among other publications. A former vice president of the South Asian Journalists Association, she has also served on the board of Asian American Writers' Workshop, and is presently a member of the board of directors of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota and co-hosts the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast on Literary Hub, which is about the intersection of literature and the news.
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March 6, 2024
**Longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction**
4.5⭐rounded up!
“Imagine the places you grew up, the places you studied, places that belonged to your people, burned. But I should stop pretending that I know you. Perhaps you do not have to imagine. Perhaps your library, too, went up in smoke.”
In 1981 Jaffna, sixteen-year-old Sashikala “Sashi” Kulenthiren dreams of becoming a doctor just like her eldest brother Niranjan and her late grandfather, who was a renowned physician in Colombo. But as the civil war in Sri Lanka intensifies and violence ensues between the warring factions- the Sinhalese government and the Tamil militants who are fighting for an independent state free of persecution of the Tamils, life as she has known it shall be changed forever. When one of her brothers loses his life in an act of anti-Tamil violence and two of her brothers and a family friend join the “movement” Sashi finds herself making choices and being drawn into a life she had never imagined for herself- a medical student also working as a medic for those serving in the movement. As she bears witness to the politics, the violence, and the activism of the 1980s she eventually embarks on exposing the true plight of civilians caught in the crossfire between the warring factions of the Sinhalese government, Tamil militants and the Indian peacekeeping forces through the written word with the help of one of her professors taking risks that could endanger her life and those of her associates.
“I want you to understand: it does not matter if you cannot imagine the future. Still, relentless, it comes.”
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan is a compelling read. Set in the early stages of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, the author takes us through the turbulence of 1980s Jaffna/Colombo, including Black July and its aftermath, combining historical fact with fiction. The author writes with passion yet does not fill the pages with any excess – be it words or sentimentality. Narrated in the first person by our protagonist, Sashi, the tone is direct, often matter-of-fact, yet there is much depth to the words, the characters and their stories. At times, this book reads as a true account rather than a work of fiction. This is one of those rare books that is difficult to read yet impossible to put down.
Many thanks to the author, Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this exceptionally well-written novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
“It did not occur to me to count or prove, to measure our losses for history or for other people to understand or believe. I did not collect the evidence of my own destroyed life; I did not know people would ask me for it.”
4.5⭐rounded up!
“Imagine the places you grew up, the places you studied, places that belonged to your people, burned. But I should stop pretending that I know you. Perhaps you do not have to imagine. Perhaps your library, too, went up in smoke.”
In 1981 Jaffna, sixteen-year-old Sashikala “Sashi” Kulenthiren dreams of becoming a doctor just like her eldest brother Niranjan and her late grandfather, who was a renowned physician in Colombo. But as the civil war in Sri Lanka intensifies and violence ensues between the warring factions- the Sinhalese government and the Tamil militants who are fighting for an independent state free of persecution of the Tamils, life as she has known it shall be changed forever. When one of her brothers loses his life in an act of anti-Tamil violence and two of her brothers and a family friend join the “movement” Sashi finds herself making choices and being drawn into a life she had never imagined for herself- a medical student also working as a medic for those serving in the movement. As she bears witness to the politics, the violence, and the activism of the 1980s she eventually embarks on exposing the true plight of civilians caught in the crossfire between the warring factions of the Sinhalese government, Tamil militants and the Indian peacekeeping forces through the written word with the help of one of her professors taking risks that could endanger her life and those of her associates.
“I want you to understand: it does not matter if you cannot imagine the future. Still, relentless, it comes.”
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan is a compelling read. Set in the early stages of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, the author takes us through the turbulence of 1980s Jaffna/Colombo, including Black July and its aftermath, combining historical fact with fiction. The author writes with passion yet does not fill the pages with any excess – be it words or sentimentality. Narrated in the first person by our protagonist, Sashi, the tone is direct, often matter-of-fact, yet there is much depth to the words, the characters and their stories. At times, this book reads as a true account rather than a work of fiction. This is one of those rare books that is difficult to read yet impossible to put down.
Many thanks to the author, Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this exceptionally well-written novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
“It did not occur to me to count or prove, to measure our losses for history or for other people to understand or believe. I did not collect the evidence of my own destroyed life; I did not know people would ask me for it.”
April 13, 2024
There is a civil war going on in Sri Lanka in 1981- and sixteen-year-old Sashi reveals what it means to be swept up in the violence and confusion. The good guys are ruthless, people she loves take incredibly cruel actions, and Sashi finds that even following her conscience has regrettable consequences. Author V. V. Ganeshananthan casts us as witnesses alongside Sashi to the scorched earth unfolding in the wake of the fight.
Here there is no righteous way to fight a pure fight for justice. Sashi loses her brothers and friends to the Tamil Tigers, the revolutionary group rising up in response to the oppression forced upon them by the Sinhalese majority. As a medical student she is recruited to help but discovers the leaders stooping to tactics no better than the enemies they are fighting.
It is not new to see lives obliterated by war. In “Brotherless Night” this pain is strikingly brought to life through the eyes of Sashi, a beautifully realized character who reminds us horror is often suffered by humanity in places not necessarily illuminated by our newsfeed or social media trends.
***Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, honoring literature by women.
Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #BrotherlessNight #NetGalley
Here there is no righteous way to fight a pure fight for justice. Sashi loses her brothers and friends to the Tamil Tigers, the revolutionary group rising up in response to the oppression forced upon them by the Sinhalese majority. As a medical student she is recruited to help but discovers the leaders stooping to tactics no better than the enemies they are fighting.
It is not new to see lives obliterated by war. In “Brotherless Night” this pain is strikingly brought to life through the eyes of Sashi, a beautifully realized character who reminds us horror is often suffered by humanity in places not necessarily illuminated by our newsfeed or social media trends.
***Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, honoring literature by women.
Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #BrotherlessNight #NetGalley
December 10, 2022
I rate this historical fiction book a solid 4 stars. It is set during the Sri Lankan civil war, between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. The war lasts more than 25 years. The book centers on one Tamil family and how the vicious war affects them. Both sides kill and torture civilians. The narrator is 16 year old Sashi in 1981. She wants to be a doctor, a very difficult goal in a male dominated society.
The title comes from night spent worrying about her missing oldest brother, Niranjan. He has gone to find a safe place for the family while Sinhalese rioters are murdering Tamil civilians.
Two quotes:
Quote from a revered teacher: "Open your books, read while you can, and remember: there are people in our country who would burn what we love and laugh at the flames. "
Life in an underground bunker: "When we ran to the bunkers we tried to remember to carry our torches so that we could check for snakes. Sometimes there were cobras in the bunkers; sometimes after a storm foul smelling water filled them and we rose from them rank and cold."
Thanks to Random House for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#BrotherlessNight #NetGalley.
The title comes from night spent worrying about her missing oldest brother, Niranjan. He has gone to find a safe place for the family while Sinhalese rioters are murdering Tamil civilians.
Two quotes:
Quote from a revered teacher: "Open your books, read while you can, and remember: there are people in our country who would burn what we love and laugh at the flames. "
Life in an underground bunker: "When we ran to the bunkers we tried to remember to carry our torches so that we could check for snakes. Sometimes there were cobras in the bunkers; sometimes after a storm foul smelling water filled them and we rose from them rank and cold."
Thanks to Random House for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#BrotherlessNight #NetGalley.
Read
July 21, 2022With immense compassion and deep moral complexity, V. V. Ganeshananthan brings us an achingly moving portrait of individual and societal grief. “I want you to understand,” the narrator of BROTHERLESS NIGHT insists, and by the end of this blazingly brilliant novel, we do: that in a world full of turmoil, human connections and shared stories can teach us how—and as importantly, why—to survive.
April 29, 2023
Story of Sri Lankan civil war and how it changed millions of lives.
April 22, 2024
Deeply moving historical fiction that reads like a memoir.
Check out my BookTube review on Hello, Bookworm.📚🐛
"Open your books, read while you can, and remember: there are people in our country who would burn what we love and laugh at the flames."
I listened to the audiobook of this and was swiftly transported to 1980s Jaffna in Sri Lanka, where 16-year-old Sashi is aspiring to be a doctor in a male-dominated society. Unfortunately, Sashi’s medical studies are halted by a civil war, but she continues to learn after accepting a position working as a medic at a field hospital for the Tamil Tigers, which, she says, you know as “the terrorists”.
This work of political and historical fiction introduced me to a time, place, and war that I am unfamiliar with, but quickly grounded me with an understanding of the unrest between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority, which Sashi and her family are.
I found this a very conflicting and human story. It’s so steeped in history and written in such an intimate, personal way that I had to continually remind myself I was listening to fiction, not a memoir. Highly recommend!
--
My deepest gratitude to the Carol Shields Prize for sending me a finished copy of this book to celebrate the prize.
Check out my BookTube review on Hello, Bookworm.📚🐛
"Open your books, read while you can, and remember: there are people in our country who would burn what we love and laugh at the flames."
I listened to the audiobook of this and was swiftly transported to 1980s Jaffna in Sri Lanka, where 16-year-old Sashi is aspiring to be a doctor in a male-dominated society. Unfortunately, Sashi’s medical studies are halted by a civil war, but she continues to learn after accepting a position working as a medic at a field hospital for the Tamil Tigers, which, she says, you know as “the terrorists”.
This work of political and historical fiction introduced me to a time, place, and war that I am unfamiliar with, but quickly grounded me with an understanding of the unrest between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority, which Sashi and her family are.
I found this a very conflicting and human story. It’s so steeped in history and written in such an intimate, personal way that I had to continually remind myself I was listening to fiction, not a memoir. Highly recommend!
--
My deepest gratitude to the Carol Shields Prize for sending me a finished copy of this book to celebrate the prize.
March 26, 2023
ETA: I need to add just a few words; I cannot stop thinking about what I have read, learned and experienced, as though firsthand. Atrocities were committed by all involved—the government, the terrorist groups, the Indian peacekeepers and the UN that failed to act. In shining a light on all sides, the book is balanced and fair.
*******************
Lynne, a GR friend, recommended this to me. I trust her opinion. Once again, her advice has proved to be right!
This is a book of historical fiction. It's about the Sri Lankan War. The war began in 1983. On May 18, 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared its end. Twenty-six years it took. Over one million were killed and millions of Sri Lankans, mainly minority Tamils, were displaced as refugees both inside the country and abroad.
We meet the central protagonist, Sashi, at the age of sixteen. She spills boiling water over her body. A friend, passing by on the street, hears her screams. A medical student, he improvises, covering her burns with the whites of eggs. She too studies to become a doctor. To save lives, any person´s life, is what she wants to do. Her brothers are drawn into the Tamil Tigers terrorist movement. Saving life and terrorism are placed side by side. The exigencies of both are laid bare.
The book is informative. The characters and their life stories pull the reader in. The prose is alternately informative, eloquent and moving. The focus on Sashi and her family gives readers a connection to the many who struggled and suffered. Compassion is what the reader feels. My eyes teared up, not just once but repeatedly. This talented author delivers here a novel that both teaches and moves readers emotionally. I am impressed.
I tend to read classics. Why? Because the probability is high that they are good. A classic must pass the test of time. I bet my bottom dollar that this book will one day become a classic. It’s that good! The book came out this year, at the start of 2023! It makes clear to me that excellent literature is being written today.
You must read this book. No review I write can do it justice. It teaches and wrings your heart.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nirmala Rajasingam. Her accent fits the telling of the tale. Names are not always easy to snap up. This is because they were unfamiliar to me. You recognize them after a while. Four stars for the audio narration.
*******************
Lynne, a GR friend, recommended this to me. I trust her opinion. Once again, her advice has proved to be right!
This is a book of historical fiction. It's about the Sri Lankan War. The war began in 1983. On May 18, 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared its end. Twenty-six years it took. Over one million were killed and millions of Sri Lankans, mainly minority Tamils, were displaced as refugees both inside the country and abroad.
We meet the central protagonist, Sashi, at the age of sixteen. She spills boiling water over her body. A friend, passing by on the street, hears her screams. A medical student, he improvises, covering her burns with the whites of eggs. She too studies to become a doctor. To save lives, any person´s life, is what she wants to do. Her brothers are drawn into the Tamil Tigers terrorist movement. Saving life and terrorism are placed side by side. The exigencies of both are laid bare.
The book is informative. The characters and their life stories pull the reader in. The prose is alternately informative, eloquent and moving. The focus on Sashi and her family gives readers a connection to the many who struggled and suffered. Compassion is what the reader feels. My eyes teared up, not just once but repeatedly. This talented author delivers here a novel that both teaches and moves readers emotionally. I am impressed.
I tend to read classics. Why? Because the probability is high that they are good. A classic must pass the test of time. I bet my bottom dollar that this book will one day become a classic. It’s that good! The book came out this year, at the start of 2023! It makes clear to me that excellent literature is being written today.
You must read this book. No review I write can do it justice. It teaches and wrings your heart.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nirmala Rajasingam. Her accent fits the telling of the tale. Names are not always easy to snap up. This is because they were unfamiliar to me. You recognize them after a while. Four stars for the audio narration.
April 7, 2024
An important book about a teenage girl who aspires to be a doctor, whose dreams get caught in the crossfires of the Sri Lankan Civil War. V.V. Ganeshananthan does a great job of portraying the devastating and horrifying mistreatment of the Tamils in this context. I also thought she effectively showed the unfairness of when our individual desires clash with dire situations outside of our control. Unfortunately I found the writing style a bit dry and stilted, which lowered my enjoyment of the book even though I recognize its necessity.
October 16, 2023
Brotherless Night is an absolute triumph. It is a masterpiece, giving us one woman's perspective of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and simultaneously showing us how in that one perspective lies everything. It is the story of coming of age into a world that becomes increasingly fragmented and horrific, where every lesson comes at a painful cost, and every lovely memory seems to exact an exorbitant price. And yet despite the pain, there is so much beauty in this book, at a fundamental, granular level. Every sentence is stunning, bringing a complicated world and unforgettable characters to life.
But it feels wrong to reduce Brotherless Night to its aesthetic achievements when it feels so crucial, so important, so much more than its sentences or characters, its symbols or arcs. This is a book that feels like a whole world, filled with vital questions and the kind of wrenching heartbreak that stays with you long after the book has closed. I feel certain that if I met Sashi on the street, I would recognize her. This is a novel that works the particular alchemy of the best fiction: it feels like life, but more so.
I will be pressing Brotherless Night into everyone's hands, because you need to read this book immediately.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
But it feels wrong to reduce Brotherless Night to its aesthetic achievements when it feels so crucial, so important, so much more than its sentences or characters, its symbols or arcs. This is a book that feels like a whole world, filled with vital questions and the kind of wrenching heartbreak that stays with you long after the book has closed. I feel certain that if I met Sashi on the street, I would recognize her. This is a novel that works the particular alchemy of the best fiction: it feels like life, but more so.
I will be pressing Brotherless Night into everyone's hands, because you need to read this book immediately.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
March 24, 2024
My first book from the 2024 Women’s Prize Longlist. RTC.
Thanks to Random House for the free copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Thanks to Random House for the free copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
February 2, 2023
Brotherless night is set in 1981 and takes place during the Sri Lankan civil way. The story centers around 16-year-old Sashi. Sashi dreams of becoming a doctor just like her eldest brother but after the violence of the war begins, her entire world and everything she knows turns upside down.
Sashi soon becomes swept up in the violence and starts to fight for everything she loves.
The book takes us to a first-hand account of the horrors of war. As painful as this story is to read, it's even more frightening that this happened. Sri Lankans were a part of this horrific war that lasted three decades and never once did they receive any aid from the United Nations.
Brotherless Night is an absolute must-read and a story that I will not be forgetting any time soon. V.V. Ganeshananthan did a masterful job not only crafting this story and setting but also with her characterization. I highly recommend Brotherless Night to all!
Brotherless Night taught me that as an outsider, I'm quick to condemn others for acts of violence but ultimately what would I do if we were in that situation? Wouldn't I also fight to protect not only the place we call home but also my loved ones?
Brother less Night was published on January 3, 2023 so it is available now! Many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the gifted copy!
Sashi soon becomes swept up in the violence and starts to fight for everything she loves.
The book takes us to a first-hand account of the horrors of war. As painful as this story is to read, it's even more frightening that this happened. Sri Lankans were a part of this horrific war that lasted three decades and never once did they receive any aid from the United Nations.
Brotherless Night is an absolute must-read and a story that I will not be forgetting any time soon. V.V. Ganeshananthan did a masterful job not only crafting this story and setting but also with her characterization. I highly recommend Brotherless Night to all!
Brotherless Night taught me that as an outsider, I'm quick to condemn others for acts of violence but ultimately what would I do if we were in that situation? Wouldn't I also fight to protect not only the place we call home but also my loved ones?
Brother less Night was published on January 3, 2023 so it is available now! Many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the gifted copy!
February 1, 2023
Most of the events in this novel take place during the first decade of Sri Lanka’s nearly three-decade civil war, pitting minority Tamil against majority Sinhalese. As the novel opens in 1981, Sashi is a 16-year-old, studying hard, with plans to become a doctor. She has four brothers, but, as you might suppose from the title, fate will not necessarily be kind. The novel is told from Sashi’s point of view, and even though in the opening pages we learn she is recalling past events from the vantage of 2009 in NYC, the story unfolds with a vivid and urgent immediacy. Fairly early on in the book, a wave of anti-Tamil riots rips through Colombo, with Sinhalese mobs indiscriminately killing, raping, burning, looting and unleashing horror. This is the trigger for the formation of the Tamil Tigers and a number of other separatist groups who take up arms to establish an independent Tamil state in the north and west of the country. What sticks with me the most is how blood is on everyone’s hands: the Sinhalese majority government, of course; the Tamil fighters who engage in indiscriminate bombing campaigns against civilian targets and in retributive Tamil-on-Tamil assassinations of those deemed too moderate or affiliated with a competing rebel group; Indian peacekeepers sent into the country allegedly to protect (fellow Hindu) Tamils; and finally, the UN, in the final days of the conflict in 2009, for allowing the almost unimaginable horror of hundreds of thousands of civilians being rounded up and used as completely disposable shields between the opposing armed sides in the conflict.
I well remember downtown Toronto being brought to a virtual standstill for several days in early 2009 by hundreds of Tamil protesters who used their bodies to block major traffic arteries. I was entirely ignorant of events in Sri Lanka and I am ashamed now to remember being mostly annoyed by the inconvenience of being unable to get around freely. This novel makes heartbreakingly clear the horrific reality on the ground in Sri Lanka that those protestors (in Toronto and in major cities around the West) were trying to bring to the world’s attention.
I well remember downtown Toronto being brought to a virtual standstill for several days in early 2009 by hundreds of Tamil protesters who used their bodies to block major traffic arteries. I was entirely ignorant of events in Sri Lanka and I am ashamed now to remember being mostly annoyed by the inconvenience of being unable to get around freely. This novel makes heartbreakingly clear the horrific reality on the ground in Sri Lanka that those protestors (in Toronto and in major cities around the West) were trying to bring to the world’s attention.
December 19, 2022
Brotherless Night tells the story of Sashi, a medical student, and her family, including four brothers, who are caught up in the unrest, violence, and ultimately, war in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. They are Tamil in a majority Sinhalese country. Sashi adores her brothers, three of whom become involved with the organization working for Tamil independence.
This book was a bit out of my typical comfort zone, but it is good to mix it up once in a while. A fictional account that reads like a memoir, It is a tough story because so much of what occurs is not fiction. It really happened and continues to happen all over the world as in so many cases the revolutionaries fighting for independence turn out to be as dangerous as the oppressors as does the outside forces that intervene.
This account of man’s injustices to his fellow man is beautifully written and engrossing. The author writes of unimaginable atrocities with sensitivity and pathos. Despite the wrenching honesty of the novel, the strength of those who survive is powerful and somehow uplifting.
It is an important book and should be read.
This book was a bit out of my typical comfort zone, but it is good to mix it up once in a while. A fictional account that reads like a memoir, It is a tough story because so much of what occurs is not fiction. It really happened and continues to happen all over the world as in so many cases the revolutionaries fighting for independence turn out to be as dangerous as the oppressors as does the outside forces that intervene.
This account of man’s injustices to his fellow man is beautifully written and engrossing. The author writes of unimaginable atrocities with sensitivity and pathos. Despite the wrenching honesty of the novel, the strength of those who survive is powerful and somehow uplifting.
It is an important book and should be read.
June 6, 2023
I find this is a difficult book to summarize and even more difficult to rate. I will also mention that I was listening to this book first while traveling through Laos, a country obliterated in a war they were not even party to, and where people are still regularly maimed and killed by unexploded clusterbombs 50 years after the end of the secret war and later in Vietnam, and I imagine that the setting impacted my read.
I often do not love historical fiction because it bends real and momentous events to fit some ultimately tiny story. I get why writers do that. The bigger historical moment is too much for people to grasp without a patient and talented writer as a guide, and it is takes less talent and work to instead create a tiny story to anchor things and humanize the whole. The tale of ordinary people provides order for people who may know personal pain and loss but who have not faced any real uncontrolable external challenges - war, hunger homelessness, natural disaster, the violent sudden loss of many. At the same time though shrinking these stories to bite sized "we were pure and innocent bystanders and then the Nazis killed my husband and I feel sad but I have pluck" narratives diminishes the real story. There should not be order, the story should not be comprehensible because it is the inhumanity, the senselessness, the randomness, the moral greyness of living in extremis, that is what is important. Certainly there are other great pieces of historical fiction that get this, but the majority do not. This book though rolls around in the greyness. It does not allow us to look at words like "terrorist" or "doctor" or "brother" or "friend" and then make assumptions about goodness or badness or likely responses to stimuli based on or feelings about those charged labels. That is what I loved most about this book. At the center of events is Sashi, a lively Tamil girl whom we meet as a teen. She has a loving mother, a kind if absent father, four brothers, a grandmother and a best friend all of whom she adores, and maybe even a boy who will be a great love someday. For now her focus is on passing her qualification exams to go to medical school -- a goal shared by her best friend and already reached by the maybe future boyfriend. And then the government steps up its brutal repression of the Tamil people with a frenzy of mass murder, and the Tamil rise up in defense. Nearly all the men and boys in Sashi's life join the Tamil Tigers and pain and loss become her only constants. Sashi's med school studies and the impact of a professor there whom she sees as a role model help her to see life's complexities and to see her human behavior in a larger context. Sashi needs to navigate a world where at first right and wrong become unclear, and later where right and wrong cease to matter.
The author does a very good job of explaining the Sri Lankan civil war, which most people outside the region know little about, and I appreciated her historical rigor. I also appreciated the author's restraint. This book is filled with emotional moments, and I got to have those moments without the narrator telling me how to feel. As people lose family members and spouses, as they watch beloved people die by choice for the cause a lesser writer would have described their pain and sadness in great detail. But why? As a reader I don't want to read about feeling, I want to feel. The steadiness of the prose (which is not to say that it is cold or detached, just not overwrought) made me imagine and inhabit moments that I would have guessed were unimaginable. Empathy rather than schmaltz is a good thing.
One more note, the narrator of this audiobook was perfect for this book - she was very matter-of-fact in her reading without ever sounding wooden or detached.
I often do not love historical fiction because it bends real and momentous events to fit some ultimately tiny story. I get why writers do that. The bigger historical moment is too much for people to grasp without a patient and talented writer as a guide, and it is takes less talent and work to instead create a tiny story to anchor things and humanize the whole. The tale of ordinary people provides order for people who may know personal pain and loss but who have not faced any real uncontrolable external challenges - war, hunger homelessness, natural disaster, the violent sudden loss of many. At the same time though shrinking these stories to bite sized "we were pure and innocent bystanders and then the Nazis killed my husband and I feel sad but I have pluck" narratives diminishes the real story. There should not be order, the story should not be comprehensible because it is the inhumanity, the senselessness, the randomness, the moral greyness of living in extremis, that is what is important. Certainly there are other great pieces of historical fiction that get this, but the majority do not. This book though rolls around in the greyness. It does not allow us to look at words like "terrorist" or "doctor" or "brother" or "friend" and then make assumptions about goodness or badness or likely responses to stimuli based on or feelings about those charged labels. That is what I loved most about this book. At the center of events is Sashi, a lively Tamil girl whom we meet as a teen. She has a loving mother, a kind if absent father, four brothers, a grandmother and a best friend all of whom she adores, and maybe even a boy who will be a great love someday. For now her focus is on passing her qualification exams to go to medical school -- a goal shared by her best friend and already reached by the maybe future boyfriend. And then the government steps up its brutal repression of the Tamil people with a frenzy of mass murder, and the Tamil rise up in defense. Nearly all the men and boys in Sashi's life join the Tamil Tigers and pain and loss become her only constants. Sashi's med school studies and the impact of a professor there whom she sees as a role model help her to see life's complexities and to see her human behavior in a larger context. Sashi needs to navigate a world where at first right and wrong become unclear, and later where right and wrong cease to matter.
The author does a very good job of explaining the Sri Lankan civil war, which most people outside the region know little about, and I appreciated her historical rigor. I also appreciated the author's restraint. This book is filled with emotional moments, and I got to have those moments without the narrator telling me how to feel. As people lose family members and spouses, as they watch beloved people die by choice for the cause a lesser writer would have described their pain and sadness in great detail. But why? As a reader I don't want to read about feeling, I want to feel. The steadiness of the prose (which is not to say that it is cold or detached, just not overwrought) made me imagine and inhabit moments that I would have guessed were unimaginable. Empathy rather than schmaltz is a good thing.
One more note, the narrator of this audiobook was perfect for this book - she was very matter-of-fact in her reading without ever sounding wooden or detached.
December 12, 2022
Evil is not limited by what you can personally imagine.
from Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
Brotherless Night is a shattering novel. It reads like a memoir, the narrator’s voice so direct and real, or a journalistic retelling of a true story. I have read books that touched on the Sri Lanka Civil War between the majority population Sinhalese and the Tamil minority. Ethnic violence by the Sinhalese against the Tamil resulted in a backlash; the Tamil Tigers arose, over time becoming equally as fearsome in their civilian attacks. Boys were taken hostage, forced to serve in the army of one side or the other. India’s peacekeeping force tried to disarm both sides; the Tigers attacked them with suicide bombers. The conflict went on for decades.
In this novel, I was transported deep into the experiences of civilians who are inspired to action, either to defend their people or to serve all people. They witness first hand terrorism and suffering, all the horror of war. Friends turn on friends, student against teacher, siblings are divided, families displaced.
The novel begins before the war when Sashi and her brother and his friend K are preparing to study medicine, meeting up at the library. When the beloved older brother is killed in an attack, two of her brothers and the friend join the Tamil Tigers. When the Sinhalese round up village boys and takes her youngest brother, her mother and the woman of the village gather in protest. “What will we do when the men are speechless,” the leader cries out, demanding the boys’ release.
Sashi wants nothing more than to heal. She is drawn to volunteer in a Tamil field hospital, treating cadre and civilian victims of the war. Faced with one moral choice after another, Sashi is drawn into overt and covert activities. When a patient, a victim of a horrific attack, wrecks her revenge in a dramatic way, Sashi is moved to become political.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were caught between the armies while the United Nations and the world watched without sending aid.
Ganeshananthan’s novel is hard to put down and hard to read.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
from Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
Brotherless Night is a shattering novel. It reads like a memoir, the narrator’s voice so direct and real, or a journalistic retelling of a true story. I have read books that touched on the Sri Lanka Civil War between the majority population Sinhalese and the Tamil minority. Ethnic violence by the Sinhalese against the Tamil resulted in a backlash; the Tamil Tigers arose, over time becoming equally as fearsome in their civilian attacks. Boys were taken hostage, forced to serve in the army of one side or the other. India’s peacekeeping force tried to disarm both sides; the Tigers attacked them with suicide bombers. The conflict went on for decades.
In this novel, I was transported deep into the experiences of civilians who are inspired to action, either to defend their people or to serve all people. They witness first hand terrorism and suffering, all the horror of war. Friends turn on friends, student against teacher, siblings are divided, families displaced.
The novel begins before the war when Sashi and her brother and his friend K are preparing to study medicine, meeting up at the library. When the beloved older brother is killed in an attack, two of her brothers and the friend join the Tamil Tigers. When the Sinhalese round up village boys and takes her youngest brother, her mother and the woman of the village gather in protest. “What will we do when the men are speechless,” the leader cries out, demanding the boys’ release.
Sashi wants nothing more than to heal. She is drawn to volunteer in a Tamil field hospital, treating cadre and civilian victims of the war. Faced with one moral choice after another, Sashi is drawn into overt and covert activities. When a patient, a victim of a horrific attack, wrecks her revenge in a dramatic way, Sashi is moved to become political.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were caught between the armies while the United Nations and the world watched without sending aid.
Ganeshananthan’s novel is hard to put down and hard to read.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
May 5, 2023
I confess to not having much detailed knowledge of the civil war in Sri Lanka or the Tamil Tigers before I read this novel – but reading this impactful novel provided a great deal of information (and made me do some research!). The heroine, Sashi, is a young Tamil woman, with four brothers. All she really wants is to be a doctor like her oldest brother. The story unfolds as the civil war between the Tamils and the government (Senegalese) develops. I think this novel could apply to many aspects of all civil wars: one group wants ethnic/religious respect and freedom – but sees violence as the means to achieve their goals vs. a more powerful and different ethnic/religious group, who too powerfully exercised governmental control and responds to violence with more violence. The reader watches as Sashi questions the means (brutality and murder) used by the Tamil Tigers, yet understands why her brothers have joined the group. We see her daily conflicts and burdens evolving from trying to make sense out of violence and obsessive, unyielding beliefs on both sides. We experience the incredible tragedies which occurred to ordinary people as a result of the civil war. This is a dark novel about a brutal conflict – Shashi, her family and her community suffer tragedy after tragedy - but it is well written and very moving.
March 12, 2023
The problem I have with the five star scale on Goodreads--or at least the way I rate books on it--is there is no way to distinguish "excellent" from "everyone must drop everything and read this book now." The five stars for Brotherless Night is more along the lines of the later. It is a devastatingly powerful, moving and complex portrayal of the Sri Lankan civil war.
The book is mostly set in the Tamil city of Jaffna and told in the first person by a woman named Sashikala (Sashi) Kulenthiren who is 15 when it starts and on track to attend medical school--which she eventually does. She has four brothers who are all caught up and affected by the civil war in different ways, all of which in turn affect her.
The story begins just before the Sri Lankan civil war starts as the discrimination against Tamils is growing culminating in the "Black July" pogroms against the Tamils in the summer of 1983. Following this the Tamil Tigers grow in power and Jaffna (and other areas) effectively secede from government control. The main narrative ends in 1989 when the narrator flees the country. All of this is bookended by a prologue and last chapter set in New York as the narrator looks from afar at the brutal ending of the civil war.
The book presents a feminist perspective on all of these events with one woman saying "Unlike men, [women] were not interested in credit, only success, and laid their plans accordingly." These women successfully organize a march to free their sons (something Sashi's father passively avoided), document human rights abuse through a series of "Reports," teach medical school classes under terrible conditions, and much more.
The men are much more mixed. In some ways the V.V. Ganeshananthan presents a morally complex portrait of people fighting back against the harassment, discrimination and killings they have been subjected to but then themselves engaged in extreme acts of violence, including against Tamils who are in different factions, are insufficiently supportive of their movement or even critical of it.
The book depicts some extraordinary characters: someone called Sir who teaches Sashi, K. who leaves medical school to become a leader in the Tamil Tigers and Anjali a medical school professor and highly principled human rights activist (evidently based on a real person).
Interestingly, and I assume this was by design, the four brothers are no depicted nearly as vividly, especially since one of them dies relatively early in the book and two others leave for the Tamil Tigers and only return home for brief visits where they are largely silent, especially about some of the horrors that we hear about them perpetrating.
Many of the characters meet brutal ends, much more often at the hands of the Tamil Tigers who either murder them or order them to die. But there is no shortage or portrayal of the brutality of the Sri Lankan regime or the Indian "peace keepers".
Ultimately it is the civilian victims--some of whom take extraordinary and courageous risks to fight back (including the narrator)--who are unambiguously and without any moral complexity the heroes of this account.
Strongly recommend this book. (For perhaps an even more bleak account of the Sri Lankan civil war, with a much narrower aperture of a short period of a few people caught in the conflict, I also highly recommend The Story of a Brief Marriage.)
The book is mostly set in the Tamil city of Jaffna and told in the first person by a woman named Sashikala (Sashi) Kulenthiren who is 15 when it starts and on track to attend medical school--which she eventually does. She has four brothers who are all caught up and affected by the civil war in different ways, all of which in turn affect her.
The story begins just before the Sri Lankan civil war starts as the discrimination against Tamils is growing culminating in the "Black July" pogroms against the Tamils in the summer of 1983. Following this the Tamil Tigers grow in power and Jaffna (and other areas) effectively secede from government control. The main narrative ends in 1989 when the narrator flees the country. All of this is bookended by a prologue and last chapter set in New York as the narrator looks from afar at the brutal ending of the civil war.
The book presents a feminist perspective on all of these events with one woman saying "Unlike men, [women] were not interested in credit, only success, and laid their plans accordingly." These women successfully organize a march to free their sons (something Sashi's father passively avoided), document human rights abuse through a series of "Reports," teach medical school classes under terrible conditions, and much more.
The men are much more mixed. In some ways the V.V. Ganeshananthan presents a morally complex portrait of people fighting back against the harassment, discrimination and killings they have been subjected to but then themselves engaged in extreme acts of violence, including against Tamils who are in different factions, are insufficiently supportive of their movement or even critical of it.
The book depicts some extraordinary characters: someone called Sir who teaches Sashi, K. who leaves medical school to become a leader in the Tamil Tigers and Anjali a medical school professor and highly principled human rights activist (evidently based on a real person).
Interestingly, and I assume this was by design, the four brothers are no depicted nearly as vividly, especially since one of them dies relatively early in the book and two others leave for the Tamil Tigers and only return home for brief visits where they are largely silent, especially about some of the horrors that we hear about them perpetrating.
Many of the characters meet brutal ends, much more often at the hands of the Tamil Tigers who either murder them or order them to die. But there is no shortage or portrayal of the brutality of the Sri Lankan regime or the Indian "peace keepers".
Ultimately it is the civilian victims--some of whom take extraordinary and courageous risks to fight back (including the narrator)--who are unambiguously and without any moral complexity the heroes of this account.
Strongly recommend this book. (For perhaps an even more bleak account of the Sri Lankan civil war, with a much narrower aperture of a short period of a few people caught in the conflict, I also highly recommend The Story of a Brief Marriage.)
January 6, 2023
V.V. Ganeshananthan's Brotherless Night is shaping up to be one of the must read novels of Winter 2023. The narrative pacing is flawless, the voice is irresistible, and the marriage of the two keeps the reader turning throughout. The Sri Lankan Civil War has been covered time and time again in contemporary literature, but it is Ganeshananthan's warm prose that ambles the reader alongside Sashi and her journey. It's the type of book that will universalise and humanise many people towards a country that they might not normally think about. I hope it does well with the awards!
November 19, 2023
Read for the "Read the World" challenge for: Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
CW: war, violence, death, murder, sibling death, medical content, starvation, kidnapping, gun violence, sexual violence, rape, pregnancy, suicide, suicide bombing, acts of terrorism, war crimes
I find I read less contemporary literature than I believe I should. I know reading is for fun, I review books on the internet in my spare time for enjoyment (and sometimes for free books), it's something I choose to do, I'm not in school anymore, etc etc...
And then I find a book like this and I realize that maybe it's okay because I'll find the ones I am truly meant to read.
There are some books where the writing is so strong, the prose so delicious and perfect, that they leave fingerprints on your mind. You hear the words in your heart forever.
This, for me, is one of those books.
I'm not usually one to describe prose as "lush," but my god I do not have another word for it. Lush. Delectable. Luxurious. Every langorous synonym I can think of.
The writing in this novel made my heart swoop and my stomach flutter. I have very rarely read anything like it.
This book also, unfortunately, highlighted some of the more grievous issues in the state of US schooling.
Until I started this book (in November 2023) I did not know there was a civil war in Sri Lanka. I simply had absolutely no clue. And it's not like I missed it - I was born in 1996, making me 13 when it officially ended in 2009. And I think we can forgive a 13-year-old for not doing their independent research.
I have to wonder why this never came up in my decades of schooling, through social studies, world history, and even my graduate level cultural heritage courses. Not only do I need to learn more about the history of this event, it makes me wonder what other earth-shattering skirmishes I've missed in my own lifetime.
And that's what I think is the epitome of good literature - delicious to the ear and encouraging to the curious mind.
If you have ever had even the slightest inclination to read this book, I beg you to do so.
CW: war, violence, death, murder, sibling death, medical content, starvation, kidnapping, gun violence, sexual violence, rape, pregnancy, suicide, suicide bombing, acts of terrorism, war crimes
I find I read less contemporary literature than I believe I should. I know reading is for fun, I review books on the internet in my spare time for enjoyment (and sometimes for free books), it's something I choose to do, I'm not in school anymore, etc etc...
And then I find a book like this and I realize that maybe it's okay because I'll find the ones I am truly meant to read.
There are some books where the writing is so strong, the prose so delicious and perfect, that they leave fingerprints on your mind. You hear the words in your heart forever.
This, for me, is one of those books.
I'm not usually one to describe prose as "lush," but my god I do not have another word for it. Lush. Delectable. Luxurious. Every langorous synonym I can think of.
The writing in this novel made my heart swoop and my stomach flutter. I have very rarely read anything like it.
This book also, unfortunately, highlighted some of the more grievous issues in the state of US schooling.
Until I started this book (in November 2023) I did not know there was a civil war in Sri Lanka. I simply had absolutely no clue. And it's not like I missed it - I was born in 1996, making me 13 when it officially ended in 2009. And I think we can forgive a 13-year-old for not doing their independent research.
I have to wonder why this never came up in my decades of schooling, through social studies, world history, and even my graduate level cultural heritage courses. Not only do I need to learn more about the history of this event, it makes me wonder what other earth-shattering skirmishes I've missed in my own lifetime.
And that's what I think is the epitome of good literature - delicious to the ear and encouraging to the curious mind.
If you have ever had even the slightest inclination to read this book, I beg you to do so.
June 29, 2023
If I could give this 10**, I would.
By far, one of the most impactful, powerful books that I have ever read on a subject (the Sri Lanka civil war in the 1980s) that has been neglected for far too long. This novel-historical account-memoir could be set anywhere at anytime, though, because this is the story of impossible decisions, betrayal, love, perseverance, terrorism, just causes, human rights…I simply do not have enough words to describe the complete capturing of the human condition in all its beautiful and ugliness.
Make no mistake - this will be incredibly difficult to read. People are horrific to each other, and yet their sacrifice for each other to pursue truth and their right to life is equally matched so that, somehow, balance is achieved.
By far, one of the most impactful, powerful books that I have ever read on a subject (the Sri Lanka civil war in the 1980s) that has been neglected for far too long. This novel-historical account-memoir could be set anywhere at anytime, though, because this is the story of impossible decisions, betrayal, love, perseverance, terrorism, just causes, human rights…I simply do not have enough words to describe the complete capturing of the human condition in all its beautiful and ugliness.
Make no mistake - this will be incredibly difficult to read. People are horrific to each other, and yet their sacrifice for each other to pursue truth and their right to life is equally matched so that, somehow, balance is achieved.
May 24, 2023
Ganeshananthan is a Sri Lankan/American writer who creates a compelling voice for the first-person protagonist describing her experiences as a sister, daughter and medical student living through the Sri Lankan civil war of the 1980s and 1990s. I enjoyed The Seven Moons of Maali Almaidi, and found this book to be a great complement. Ganeshananthan’s linear storytelling and authentic-seeming narrator clarified the war’s complex history and made for an intimate exploration of how the war affected women.
April 20, 2024
This book deserves all the praise that is being heaped upon it.
I don’t even know that I have words that can do it justice. I’ve started and stopped this review like 5 times already because nothing feels sufficient.
It is emotionally very heavy. It is about the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sri Lankan government/military and the Tamil Tigers, and all the innocent civilians caught in the middle.
All the trigger warnings.
The book is gorgeously written. The characters well drawn.
I listened to most of this, and the narrator did a great job as well. I do recommend the audio as a way of consuming this book - there are multiple parts where questions are asked to the reader and having a voice to those questions gave it a little extra.
Additionally a lot of these pages and chapters are dense and the audio version reduces the impact of that (for me anyway).
Absolutely will check out this author’s other book when I’m feeling mentally up to it again (though I don’t know if it’s as heavy).
I don’t even know that I have words that can do it justice. I’ve started and stopped this review like 5 times already because nothing feels sufficient.
It is emotionally very heavy. It is about the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sri Lankan government/military and the Tamil Tigers, and all the innocent civilians caught in the middle.
All the trigger warnings.
The book is gorgeously written. The characters well drawn.
I listened to most of this, and the narrator did a great job as well. I do recommend the audio as a way of consuming this book - there are multiple parts where questions are asked to the reader and having a voice to those questions gave it a little extra.
Additionally a lot of these pages and chapters are dense and the audio version reduces the impact of that (for me anyway).
Absolutely will check out this author’s other book when I’m feeling mentally up to it again (though I don’t know if it’s as heavy).
March 14, 2024
Incredibly moving, especially in light of our current newsreels. Honest, raw and beautifully written.
January 6, 2023
Thanks to Random House, via NetGalley, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book has a sweeping quality. It covers Sri Lanka’s three decades of turmoil starting in the early 80’s and depicts the very tragic conditions, especially for the Tamils. There is no hero but the enemies are prolific (and yes, sometimes the call is coming from inside the house). The main groups/factions conducted themselves in complicated ways and many transformed into multi-headed monsters. We see how the context evolves and various players unravel.
The author portrays the mix of historical factors with a confident pen. The writing is strong and does not falter. As a reader, I felt well considered in the storycrafting.
For the first third of the book, I felt that Sashi served as a recorder. She mostly describes what happens around her, as if she were a camera for her four brothers. This role seems to diminish later but it gnawed at me. I realized she often acted or reacted due to others. Was her powerlessness a metaphor? Granted she does have some agency—and often it was defined or prescribed by others or by the “situation.” Is that how life often is?
I’d recommend this title to get a glimpse of Sri Lanka and perhaps gain some insight into its current conditions. While reading this I reflected on her earlier book, Love Marriage. I got more context about the uncle character.
This article by the author provides some thoughtful insights: https://lithub.com/on-authenticity-re...
This book has a sweeping quality. It covers Sri Lanka’s three decades of turmoil starting in the early 80’s and depicts the very tragic conditions, especially for the Tamils. There is no hero but the enemies are prolific (and yes, sometimes the call is coming from inside the house). The main groups/factions conducted themselves in complicated ways and many transformed into multi-headed monsters. We see how the context evolves and various players unravel.
The author portrays the mix of historical factors with a confident pen. The writing is strong and does not falter. As a reader, I felt well considered in the storycrafting.
For the first third of the book, I felt that Sashi served as a recorder. She mostly describes what happens around her, as if she were a camera for her four brothers. This role seems to diminish later but it gnawed at me. I realized she often acted or reacted due to others. Was her powerlessness a metaphor? Granted she does have some agency—and often it was defined or prescribed by others or by the “situation.” Is that how life often is?
I’d recommend this title to get a glimpse of Sri Lanka and perhaps gain some insight into its current conditions. While reading this I reflected on her earlier book, Love Marriage. I got more context about the uncle character.
This article by the author provides some thoughtful insights: https://lithub.com/on-authenticity-re...
October 22, 2022
A wonderous, luminous story of family and rebellion.
In 1981, Sashi lives in Jaffna, Sri Lanka with her 4 brothers and beloved parents. A civil war erupts and her family is quickly torn apart.
As part of the Tamil minority, her family is expected to support the militant group the Tamil Tigers. The cost of the support, however, is far more than anyone could have ever guessed.
Follow Sashi from age 16 through medical school, as she volunteers as a field doctor, supports her parents and questions what she truly believes. Her voice is one, that you will never forget, and as the reader you are forced again and again to ask yourself - What would you do?
Set during the early years of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, based on the historical record, this is a sweeping, emotional novel that you truly will never forget. If you like novels about family, obstacles, real world themes and international cultures, Brotherless Night is a brilliant book for you!
#RandomHousePublishing
In 1981, Sashi lives in Jaffna, Sri Lanka with her 4 brothers and beloved parents. A civil war erupts and her family is quickly torn apart.
As part of the Tamil minority, her family is expected to support the militant group the Tamil Tigers. The cost of the support, however, is far more than anyone could have ever guessed.
Follow Sashi from age 16 through medical school, as she volunteers as a field doctor, supports her parents and questions what she truly believes. Her voice is one, that you will never forget, and as the reader you are forced again and again to ask yourself - What would you do?
Set during the early years of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, based on the historical record, this is a sweeping, emotional novel that you truly will never forget. If you like novels about family, obstacles, real world themes and international cultures, Brotherless Night is a brilliant book for you!
#RandomHousePublishing
Read
May 24, 2023I finished reading this book a while ago but never got around to writing the review, so even though I liked the book, my reasons for liking it are a bit fuzzy. Will need to re-read in order to write a proper review.
March 19, 2024
Sashi is a Tamil teenager in Jaffna, a Tamil town in northern Sri Lanka, in 1981, a few years after a range of Tamil separatist groups emerged to challenge persecution and discrimination by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government. Over the eight years covered by Brotherless Night, V. V. Ganeshananthan's second novel, Sashi will find herself at the centre of this civil war, as two of her brothers and her childhood crush join the Tamil Tigers, and she starts helping out at a Tiger field hospital as a medical student but also learning from her older mentor Anjali, a feminist human rights activist based on Rajani Thiranagama. This is the only novel longlisted for both the Women's Prize and the Carol Shields Prize this year, and I can see why. Unlike a number of historical novels I've read that try to encompass the history of a family and of a country, Ganeshananthan never resorts to stereotype. Sashi, her brothers, her family and friends, her grandmother, all are beautifully individual characters, regardless of the amount of page time they get. And from the opening pages, Sashi's position as a storytelling narrator overrode many of my usual concerns about historical fiction, as she shapes the novel rather than simply relating events.
Brotherless Night is historical fiction that reads like memoir. Ganeshananthan writes fascinatingly at Literary Hub about her positionality in telling this story, acknowledging that while she has Tamil heritage, she grew up in the United States, and so writes 'from a diasporic position'. Yet, she argues convincingly, stating that members of a diaspora are 'inherently inauthentic' is a dangerous stance: the people who leave their countries are often from persecuted minorities, like the Tamils, and so 'if one uses the notion of lived experience as the only valid claim to authenticity, someone who grew up with Sinhala Buddhist majority privilege in Colombo—and with Sinhala Buddhist nationalist beliefs—could try to silence someone whose minoritized family left Sri Lanka because of those beliefs'. Even so, she does not want to be given automatic credibility by white readers, recognising that somebody who grew up in Sri Lanka 'has different stakes in what occurred'. Her meticulous research, she argues, is more important in some ways. This careful, ethical thought process is obvious in the novel itself, as Ganeshananthan writes with wonderful clarity and emotion about important historical events like the formation of the Jaffna Mothers' Front in 1984 and Thileepan's hunger strike in 1987.
Sashi is a combative, interrogative narrator: she likes to use second person to enter into dialogue with the reader. At times, this worked well for me, particularly when she refuses to give explanations for things the reader might not know. I also liked her challenge near the end of the novel: 'Perhaps you know all of this already; perhaps I am telling you a story you already understand. What I wouldn't give for that to be true! But we both know it isn't. Because I am talking to you, because I'm sitting here and you're sitting there, you expect me to explain'. However, I found that many of her interjections became repetitive and a bit frustrating; I got tired of her asking the reader whether they have experienced something similar, or what they will need to do in order to understand. (Perhaps I was just having painful Name of the Wind flashbacks.) And despite the praise I've seen for this aspect of the novel, Sashi is not an especially ethically complex narrator, either. She has a strong sense of what she feels is right and wrong: she occasionally acts in opposition to this, but we always know what she thinks is the right thing to do. This meant that, occasionally, I felt a little uneasy about the one-sidedness of her narration, which I think is intended to recount the violence of both the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Tigers but, as this review argues, definitely focuses much more intensely on atrocities committed by the Tigers. Sashi is, unsurprisingly, not unbiased, and I guess I worry that this novel may be read too uncritically, a reading that I think Ganeshananthan herself would resist (though I also feel ill-equipped to comment myself as somebody who knows very little about the history of Sri Lanka - I would like to read more Tamil responses to this novel).
Having said that, this is a worthy addition to both the Women's Prize and Carol Shields Prize longlists, immersive, accomplished and painfully moving. I can see it advancing to both of the shortlists.
Brotherless Night is historical fiction that reads like memoir. Ganeshananthan writes fascinatingly at Literary Hub about her positionality in telling this story, acknowledging that while she has Tamil heritage, she grew up in the United States, and so writes 'from a diasporic position'. Yet, she argues convincingly, stating that members of a diaspora are 'inherently inauthentic' is a dangerous stance: the people who leave their countries are often from persecuted minorities, like the Tamils, and so 'if one uses the notion of lived experience as the only valid claim to authenticity, someone who grew up with Sinhala Buddhist majority privilege in Colombo—and with Sinhala Buddhist nationalist beliefs—could try to silence someone whose minoritized family left Sri Lanka because of those beliefs'. Even so, she does not want to be given automatic credibility by white readers, recognising that somebody who grew up in Sri Lanka 'has different stakes in what occurred'. Her meticulous research, she argues, is more important in some ways. This careful, ethical thought process is obvious in the novel itself, as Ganeshananthan writes with wonderful clarity and emotion about important historical events like the formation of the Jaffna Mothers' Front in 1984 and Thileepan's hunger strike in 1987.
Sashi is a combative, interrogative narrator: she likes to use second person to enter into dialogue with the reader. At times, this worked well for me, particularly when she refuses to give explanations for things the reader might not know. I also liked her challenge near the end of the novel: 'Perhaps you know all of this already; perhaps I am telling you a story you already understand. What I wouldn't give for that to be true! But we both know it isn't. Because I am talking to you, because I'm sitting here and you're sitting there, you expect me to explain'. However, I found that many of her interjections became repetitive and a bit frustrating; I got tired of her asking the reader whether they have experienced something similar, or what they will need to do in order to understand. (Perhaps I was just having painful Name of the Wind flashbacks.) And despite the praise I've seen for this aspect of the novel, Sashi is not an especially ethically complex narrator, either. She has a strong sense of what she feels is right and wrong: she occasionally acts in opposition to this, but we always know what she thinks is the right thing to do. This meant that, occasionally, I felt a little uneasy about the one-sidedness of her narration, which I think is intended to recount the violence of both the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Tigers but, as this review argues, definitely focuses much more intensely on atrocities committed by the Tigers. Sashi is, unsurprisingly, not unbiased, and I guess I worry that this novel may be read too uncritically, a reading that I think Ganeshananthan herself would resist (though I also feel ill-equipped to comment myself as somebody who knows very little about the history of Sri Lanka - I would like to read more Tamil responses to this novel).
Having said that, this is a worthy addition to both the Women's Prize and Carol Shields Prize longlists, immersive, accomplished and painfully moving. I can see it advancing to both of the shortlists.
November 15, 2022
This is a beautiful, lyrical novel based on a sad and deadly chapter in history in Sir Lanka, South Asia. In the beginning years of the conflict, 1981, Sashi is growing up in Janka with her three brothers and parents living what seems to be a healthy and happy life. Sashi hopes to do well in her studies and become a doctor. She harbors a crush on K, a good friend of her brothers, and he’s there to help her during various trials of growing up.
But unspeakable tragedies begin in her country and with each passing day, the bloodshed moves closer to her front steps. Fleeing to survive, Sashi agrees to work as a medic at a field hospital for one of the fighting military factions. As time progresses, she loses touch with her brothers, and events happen that are against her moral code.
The writing of this historical fiction is beautiful but it doesn’t shy away from painting a realistic picture of the horrors of history. Revealing the depth of depravity man can do to fellow man, but weaving in the hope for a better tomorrow, this is not an easy book to read. It is a loose history of the horrible impact of the civil war, and the toll it takes on countries, families, and in particular, one young lady with hopes and aspirations.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is January 3, 2023.
But unspeakable tragedies begin in her country and with each passing day, the bloodshed moves closer to her front steps. Fleeing to survive, Sashi agrees to work as a medic at a field hospital for one of the fighting military factions. As time progresses, she loses touch with her brothers, and events happen that are against her moral code.
The writing of this historical fiction is beautiful but it doesn’t shy away from painting a realistic picture of the horrors of history. Revealing the depth of depravity man can do to fellow man, but weaving in the hope for a better tomorrow, this is not an easy book to read. It is a loose history of the horrible impact of the civil war, and the toll it takes on countries, families, and in particular, one young lady with hopes and aspirations.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is January 3, 2023.
July 6, 2023
4.5 stars. *Set in the 1980s Sri Lanka, this is the story of Sashikala “Sashi” and her family (mother, father and her 4 brothers). Her story becomes a first-hand account of the life, violence and reality of this time as unrest and eventually a civil war breaks out around them.
*In short, I really loved this book. It’s a fantastic historical fiction that also included so many of my favorite story elements. At its heart, it’s a story about 5 siblings and the choices they make. As someone who comes from a family of 5 siblings, I loved all of the dynamics that entails. Also, Sashi wants to go to medical school and become a doctor and as war rages she has her fair share of hands on experience. I love a medical aspect in a story.
*The story did start off a little slow for me, but I quickly got caught up in the narrative and this is the kind of book that I can see myself thinking about a lot. It will definitely stick with me as I learned so much about this specific time in Sri Lankan history. The characters are just so vivid and I met one of my favorite characters of all time. Her name is Anjali and she’s one of Sashi’s medical school professors AND she’s based on a real Sri Lankan woman and activist. The almost two decades of research the author put into this one was so evident. Huge s/o @fictionalwanderer for putting this book on my radar!
*In short, I really loved this book. It’s a fantastic historical fiction that also included so many of my favorite story elements. At its heart, it’s a story about 5 siblings and the choices they make. As someone who comes from a family of 5 siblings, I loved all of the dynamics that entails. Also, Sashi wants to go to medical school and become a doctor and as war rages she has her fair share of hands on experience. I love a medical aspect in a story.
*The story did start off a little slow for me, but I quickly got caught up in the narrative and this is the kind of book that I can see myself thinking about a lot. It will definitely stick with me as I learned so much about this specific time in Sri Lankan history. The characters are just so vivid and I met one of my favorite characters of all time. Her name is Anjali and she’s one of Sashi’s medical school professors AND she’s based on a real Sri Lankan woman and activist. The almost two decades of research the author put into this one was so evident. Huge s/o @fictionalwanderer for putting this book on my radar!
February 13, 2023
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. I absolutely loved it.
For you if: You like books with especially strong first-person narrators.
FULL REVIEW:
Random House sent me an early review copy of Brotherless Night (although it’s out now!), and its incredible blurbs (Celest Ng, Brit Bennett) convinced me to bump it to the top of my list. And holy moly, am I glad I did. This one could easily make my list of favorites for 2023.
The prologue starts with an arresting opening line: “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.” And that paragraph ends just as powerfully: “I met a lot of these sorts of people when I was younger because I used to be what you would call a terrorist myself.” So begins our time with Sashi, who is older and living in the US now, but telling us her story as it started in 1981 in Jaffna, when she was a teenager and the Sri Lankan civil war was just beginning. She dreams of becoming a doctor, to help people as her grandfather did. And she does — but along the way, anti-Tamil violence costs her family dearly, in more ways than just lives: two of her brothers join the Tamil Tigers, as does a close family friend. Eventually, Sashi herself finds herself drawn into the conflict herself, in ways that I don’t want to spoil but found deeply resonant.
This book was impossible to put down; the prose — or maybe it’s more accurate to say Sashi’s voice — had a momentum that just reached out and gripped me and never let go. But it wasn’t just excellent on a sentence level. This book is tough to read at times, but gorgeous and heartbreaking and powerful throughout. There are no good guys in war, and it’s easy to condemn actions from the outside, but who knows what each of us would do to keep our families safe? Humans are flawed and beautiful and never black and white, and neither are our choices. No matter what, there is strength in those who fight and those who survive.
Get yourself a copy of this one and read it, please.
CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
War violence, gun violence; Death of a sibling, spouse, parent; Blood, medical content; Rape; Suicide (hunger strike, suicide bombing)
TL;DR REVIEW:
Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. I absolutely loved it.
For you if: You like books with especially strong first-person narrators.
FULL REVIEW:
Random House sent me an early review copy of Brotherless Night (although it’s out now!), and its incredible blurbs (Celest Ng, Brit Bennett) convinced me to bump it to the top of my list. And holy moly, am I glad I did. This one could easily make my list of favorites for 2023.
The prologue starts with an arresting opening line: “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.” And that paragraph ends just as powerfully: “I met a lot of these sorts of people when I was younger because I used to be what you would call a terrorist myself.” So begins our time with Sashi, who is older and living in the US now, but telling us her story as it started in 1981 in Jaffna, when she was a teenager and the Sri Lankan civil war was just beginning. She dreams of becoming a doctor, to help people as her grandfather did. And she does — but along the way, anti-Tamil violence costs her family dearly, in more ways than just lives: two of her brothers join the Tamil Tigers, as does a close family friend. Eventually, Sashi herself finds herself drawn into the conflict herself, in ways that I don’t want to spoil but found deeply resonant.
This book was impossible to put down; the prose — or maybe it’s more accurate to say Sashi’s voice — had a momentum that just reached out and gripped me and never let go. But it wasn’t just excellent on a sentence level. This book is tough to read at times, but gorgeous and heartbreaking and powerful throughout. There are no good guys in war, and it’s easy to condemn actions from the outside, but who knows what each of us would do to keep our families safe? Humans are flawed and beautiful and never black and white, and neither are our choices. No matter what, there is strength in those who fight and those who survive.
Get yourself a copy of this one and read it, please.
CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
War violence, gun violence; Death of a sibling, spouse, parent; Blood, medical content; Rape; Suicide (hunger strike, suicide bombing)
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