Brotherless Night

A Novel

De: V. V. Ganeshananthan

Narrado por: Nirmala Rajasingam

New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A courageous young Sri Lankan woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor in this “heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war” (Brit Bennett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half).

“This book, a careful, vivid exploration of what’s lost within a community when life and thought collapse toward binary conflict, rang softly for me as a novel for our own country in this odd time.”—Nathan Heller, The New Yorker

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION, THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION, AND THE ASIAN PRIZE FOR FICTION • FINALIST FOR THE MINNESOTA BOOK AWARD

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 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.

©2023 V. V. Ganeshananthan (P)2023 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Brotherless Night succeeds in telling all its stories—the historical and the personal, the factual and the ethical—as one, and that narrative has echoes. . . . This book, a careful, vivid exploration of what’s lost within a community when life and thought collapse toward binary conflict, rang softly for me as a novel for our own country in this odd time.”—The New Yorker

“Riveting, heartbreaking and extraordinary . . . Brotherless Night is a masterpiece.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A blazingly brilliant novel . . . With immense compassion and deep moral complexity, V. V. Ganeshananthan brings us an achingly moving portrait of a world full of turmoil, but one in which human connections and shared stories can teach us how—and as importantly, why—to survive.”—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

History no one teaches

Very hard to learn what I had no idea was happening, and it seems to be repeating.

Another amazing book by Vasugi

I love this story, for the story and the way it is wriiten. Amazing story of a girl in a war zone that tried to do the right thing.

Stunning

One of the best books I have read/listened to in a very long time…

Fiction was never so real!

Where to even begin?? This is not an easy listen, but it is an important one. In our current us/them, up/down, black/white society where there is little patience for grey area and nuance, this is a story of a narrator who has no choice but to examine the grey area and the nuance. In doing so, she asks the questions that prompt our examination as well. Vivid descriptions of everything from delicate food at family gatherings to the heartbreak of wartime atrocities. Just listen to it!

Heartbreaking

The book captures the complexity of being a Tamil in Jaffna. An individual had to balance the duty to the culture, to a race and to humanity as a whole. The author captures this balance with the depth and clarity it deserves. A stunning book for the world to appreciate

Incredible story of the complexity of terrorism, prescient of what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon.

The complexity of the issues and the moral dilemmas and tough decisions many characters faced.

Likely an unimaginable story to you…

And likely one you should read and consider.
It’s both a particular story of a narrator and the people and places she holds dear as well as a much larger story about insurrection, civil war, terrorism, point-of-view. “History is written by the victors” said Winston Churchill. This searing novel reads like memoir; the narrator having sustained unimaginable losses (including bothers) lives to right the record.

Heartbreaking…

As a Tamil Diaspora living in States who has gone through some of this 80s experience in person, the story touched into the core of the soul possibly, my DNA….
Thank you for taking the time to tell this complex story. Hope more non-Tamils would read or listen to this sad tragic story of a nation.

A story of courage

The events told in this story are often heart-wrenching. But the lessons on courage are unmistakable. Well worth your time.

The Sri Lankan Civil War from a Tamil Perspective

A powerfully narrated story of minority oppression erupting into a separatist rebellion and a civil war that lasted 26 years with atrocities on both sides. In “Brotherless Night,”
V.V. Ganeshananthan tells the story from a Tamil or minority perspective detailing how even a righteous rebellion against a government goes wrong when power corrupts the leaders. She shows how, within one family, all the children respond to the rebels differently, some accepting their rhetoric and others opposed to it. This story resonates with the current Palestinian and Israeli conflict— in both scenarios innocent civilians become collateral damage when the fighting begins. War is hell and civil war is perhaps the most hellish.