Asha Krishna
How does war affect us? This seems to be a question affecting this century more than any other, with Russia–Ukraine and Israel–Gaza currently grabbing headlines in the news and social media. Perhaps this is why Brotherless Night, a book set in a civil war in the 1980s, resonates today.
“A woman from Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil community recalls her youth and learning to practice medicine in Jaffna during the first decade of the country’s civil war, a period that irrevocably altered her future and those of her four beloved brothers,” V.V. Ganeshananthan said this at an interview after winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel last year. It succinctly captures the gist of the novel.
The book opens with an intriguing prologue with a New York dateline.
“I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.”
Dwelling on the word “terrorist” the narrator says, “We begin with this word but I promise you will come to see it cannot contain everything that happened.”
By the end of that one-page prologue, the reader is hooked.
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One of the striking features of the novel is a strong sense of place and culture.
Ganeshananthan punctuates the narrative with the solid cultural identity of the Tamil and Sinhalese people who inhabit the land. This, in turn, forms the backdrop for the strife that tears the country apart, allowing the reader to get into the story. The narrative goes back and forth in time, through an exploration of the food, language and setting. It takes its time to establish the character and the setting, however, it provides a solid context when the events unfold.
The story is told through the eyes of 16-year-old Sashi and as it moves through the decade, it lays out the story of a nation navigating through chaos and dissonance. There is violence and heartbreak and Ganeshananthan handles the multidimensional narrative with utmost skill. Brutal violence and rape are all side effects of the war but the narrative focuses on its emotional impact without undermining the brutality of the act. A commendable achievement.
The family dynamics showcase the balance of relationships between the characters and their personas, whether it is the seemingly passive mother whose maternal instinct propels her to rescue her son from the authorities or in the way the siblings find themselves on opposite sides when the war drives a wedge in relationships. The country’s history is carefully threaded through regular insertion of factual events, infusing it with an imagination that creates emotional resonance for the reader.
Throughout the narrative of a fractured nation and dismembered lives flows the love for the written word. For Sashi the protagonist studying to be a doctor, books serve as “the dearest mercies of those exhausting days…”
“When I returned from the clinic, I flung myself not into bed or back into my studies but into those volumes. Their words drained those nights of terror… With each chapter I read now, I felt not removed but partially returned to a safety that I thought I had entirely lost.”
It shows a deeply instilled love for the written word, the power of literature. The ability to reach out to different worlds and understand the one we live in.
Brotherless Night is a fascinating read about a decade in a country’s civil war. Although set in the ‘80s, it still holds an uncanny relevance to the present day because of its context.
Books serve as a coping mechanism for the narrator but then at one point as the plot progresses, they hold a mirror to the outside world about the atrocities committed in the country. Either as an ally or an escapism, books can be an anchor and a weapon, too.
Brotherless Night does this and much more.
Brotherless Night can be purchased here.
Asha Krishna is a former journalist and now a creative writing enthusiast. Short stories, flash, essays, reviews — she dabbles in them all. When not reading or writing, she loves experimenting with yarns, recipes or her vocal chords while driving around a wannabe football legend and a glamourous teenage cricketer to their training sessions. She lives in Leicestershire, UK, as @ashkkrish on X, and @ashkrishwrites on Instagram.
Featured photo from Amazon India.
