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Brotherless Night

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024

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Brotherless Night

Written by: V. V. Ganeshananthan
Narrated by: Nirmala Rajasingam
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Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024

Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war tears through her hometown of Jaffna, her dream takes her on a different path as she sees those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. Desperate to act, she must ask herself: is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?

'A masterpiece of historical fiction' MONICA ALI, chair of judges for the Women's Prize for Fiction

'An unforgettable account of a country and a family coming undone… Brotherless Night is a spectacular work of historical fiction' Guardian

'A heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war' BRIT BENNETT, bestselling author of THE VANISHING HALF

'Blazingly brilliant' CELESTE NG, bestselling author of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE

'Stunningly great' Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY, via Twitter

'Ganeshananthan is a superb writer...I wept at many points in this novel and I also wept when it was over' Sunday Times


WINNER OF THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION

©2023 V. V. Ganeshananthan (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Political Women's Fiction World Literature
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Critic Reviews

Brotherless Night is a brilliant, compelling and deeply moving novel that bears witness to the intimate and epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war. In rich, evocative prose, Ganeshananthan creates a vivid sense of time and place and an indelible cast of characters. Her commitment to complexity and clear-eyed moral scrutiny combines with spellbinding storytelling to render Brotherless Night a masterpiece of historical fiction. (Monica Ali, chair of judges for the Women's Prize for Fiction)
V.V. Ganeshananthan's novel Brotherless Night reveals the moral nuances of violence, ever belied by black-and-white terminology
A beautiful, brilliant book... tender and fierce as it is mournful. 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 (Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections)
Riveting, heartbreaking and extraordinary for both its empathetic gaze and its clear-eyed depiction of the brutality of war, Brotherless Night is a masterpiece
Visceral, historical, emotional, it is 300 pages of must-read (Women's Prize judge Anna Whitehouse)
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. V. V. Ganeshananthan drew me in from the very first line, and the intricacies of her characters' lives made it easy to stay (Sara Novic, New York Times bestselling author of TRUE BIZ)
Prepare to have your heart well and truly pummelled by this searing story about a young Tamil woman growing up as the Sri Lankan civil war explodes around her . . . at times, it's hard to remember that this rich and nuanced novel isn't actually a memoir - so convincing is Sashi's voice and so compelling her story
A devastating look at the cost of war and choosing sides
Moving and rapturous... equal parts heartbreak and rage, unravelling the tragedy of Sri Lanka's civil war with a family saga of violence, loss, impossible choices and astounding courage (Shehan Karunatilaka, Booker Prize-winning author of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida)
A careful, vivid exploration of what's lost within a community when life and thought collapse toward binary conflict [...] a novel for our own country in this odd time.
All stars
Most relevant
Although based on the narrative of historical friction the story has the intimacy of a personal journal of the main protagonist Sashi and the story of her family, friends and mentors through the decades of the war for self distermination of the tamils but yet it brings the objectiveness of a journalist reporting on the trials and tribulations of ordinary civilians who were harrassed, looted, raped and killed by not only the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil tigers but also Indian peace keeping force. The collateral damage of civilians, poignantly described, in the final stages of the war in 2009 was avoidable and something the United Nations could have perhaps prevented.

Incredible and compelling story of oppression and genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka

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Such an honest, bold, sincere and powerful account of the gruesome and brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, where countless men, women and children fight, die, flee, lament and hope...

Brilliant

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This book is amazing. Solid gold. And I think listening to it just makes it a whole lot better. Such good pronunciation!

The narration and the style of writing

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The book is a chilling rendition of the Srilankan issues over the decades, and brings up all the past memories.
The narration is superb and brings out the reality of what has transpored.

Chilling renedition of the tamil sinhala problem

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This book follows a family and their experiences during the war between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. The book offers a very nuanced look at the lives of civilians who are swept into the eye of the war, and who are cast away as carnage as time goes on. The novel particularly offers a profound insight into women’s experiences during war and the threats they face from both foes and friends.

This work is a good introduction into Sri Lanka’s tumultuous history. At a time in history where we are witnessing the horrific treatment of the people of Palestine, the forced occupation of a foreign state and the apathy of the world at large towards a genocide; a book like this shows us how easy it is for all of us to fall into familiar toxic patterns, unless we retain our humanity, and work collectively to help our brothers & sisters and build a better future for all.

Narration is authentic and this is a good listen.

The lived truth about Sri Lanka’s most dangerous years

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