Author V.V. Ganeshananthan explores how familial bonds are tested and how the individual and state intertwine in a time of conflict in June’s Ramsey County Library Book of the Month.
By Ramsey County Library
Genre: Historical fiction, drama, political fiction
“Brotherless Night” by V. V. Ganeshananthan is a historical fiction novel set in Sri Lanka in the early 1980s at the onset of their civil war. The story is told from the perspective of a young Tamil woman named Sashi, who has four brothers: Niranjan, Dayalan, Seelan and Aran. The narrative focuses on Sashi’s relationship with her brothers and how their lives become intertwined with the fate of their nation in a time of conflict.
The novel is set in Jaffna, a crucial battleground during the conflict fought between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which sought to combat the persecution of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated government. Readers should be aware that Ganeshananthan vividly highlights the war crimes, violence, starvation and displacement that Sri Lankan Tamils endured at the hands of Sri Lankan forces.
Ganeshananthan’s prose is exquisite, and the characters are raw and powerful. The relationship between the siblings is convincing, deep, and meaningful, and the author has spared no expense in adding texture and depth to each character she introduces in the story. This book is for readers who enjoy family sagas set against the backdrop of a horrifying time in history.
Find copies of “Brotherless Night” at the Ramsey County Library or on Libby.
Book description from Penguin Random House:
“Jaffna, Sri Lanka, 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 a 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.”
Find past Ramsey County Library Books of the Month here.
