Brotherless Night by V.V.Ganeshananthan

With so many ongoing regional conflicts ongoing, and many other just waiting for a spark to ignite, it is not wonder that fiction books featuring conflicts, although taking place remotely in time, do enjoy a high popularity. Literature prepare us to understand and survive a conflict and I may long for a significant book about any major conflict of the modern world.

Brotherless Night by V.V.Ganeshananthan was recently announced as the 2024 winner of Women´s Prize for Fiction. Written by a woman, told by a woman voice, it convenes from a personal experience the tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war. 

Sashi, the storyteller, is a young woman who is growing up as a person and professionally - a doctor that learned most of her practice by threating victims of the war - during the peak of the conflict. Her own personal drama, of loosing brothers to the conflict, reflects the ways in which wars do affect individuals, their dreams and aspiration, how it hijacks their life. 

It is compassion for every creatures - Sashi´s account of how Henry the dog was reacting during the intense fire exchange is one of the most emotional episodes about animals during wars I´ve ever read - that makes this relatively long book relatable. It unites people from all over the world, then and now, who ever experienced a war, no matter how ´just´ and ´random´ it is.

I had access to the book in audiobook format, read by Nirmala Rajasingam. Interestingly, both the voice of Sashi and the creator of her, do have Tamil connections, which gives to the book a high note of authenticity.

Rating: 4 stars