Brotherless Night

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION- A searing, gripping novel about a young Tamil woman living through the Sri Lankan civil warSixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war subsumes Sri Lanka, her dream takes her on a different path as she watches those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their best friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. She must ask herself- is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?

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 The New York Times
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 Star Tribune
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 Bookseller, Book of the Month (preview)
A devastating look at the cost of war and choosing sides Times Summer Reads
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. New Yorker

V. V. Ganeshananthan is the author of Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize in 2008. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others. BROTHERLESS NIGHT draws on 16 years of research into the Sri Lankan civil war. Since 2017, Ganeshananthan has co-hosted a podcast called FICTION/NON/FICTION with novelist Whitney Terrell, featuring writers like Marlon James, Madeline Miller and Jia Tolentino. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota.

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