Brotherless Night: 'Blazingly brilliant' CELESTE NG

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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? Ganeshananthan drew me in from the very first line, and the intricacies of her characters’ lives made it easy to stay. 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. The narrative itself is mostly in the first person, but the occasional use of the second person brilliantly pulls the reader into the story and, more importantly, into the decisions and reflections of the narrator, who is a young woman aspiring -- and working very hard -- to be a doctor.

An inconvenient sister” among four brothers, Sashi is even-keeled, determined, on her way to becoming a doctor. As time progresses, she loses touch with her brothers, and events happen that are against her moral code. The narrative pacing is flawless, the voice is irresistible, and the marriage of the two keeps the reader turning throughout. She is drawn to volunteer in a Tamil field hospital, treating cadre and civilian victims of the 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.Sashi tells her family’s story looking back on it from 2009, and at times speaks directly to the reader from there. 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. 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. 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.

He has gone to find a safe place for the family while Sinhalese rioters are murdering Tamil civilians.Subjected to the wanton cruelty of both the government and the various militant groups, she is forced to navigate her way through a daily gantlet of obligations and restrictions, both moral and societal. Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Sometimes there were cobras in the bunkers; sometimes after a storm foul smelling water filled them and we rose from them rank and cold. It is unafraid to look directly at the worst of the violence and erasure we have perpetrated or allowed to happen, but is insistent that we can still choose to be better.

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.

If you like novels about family, obstacles, real world themes and international cultures, Brotherless Night is a brilliant book for you!

In this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka. I loved the way the author pulled you in and occasionally just turned to as if you were just sitting there with her.Thousands of Tamils were murdered, raped and attacked; homes and businesses were destroyed; and hundreds of thousands became refugees as they fled with nothing. 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. Brotherless Night is my favorite kind of novel, one so rich and full of movement that it’s only later I realize how much I have learned.