Booknotes : Brotherless Night
Stunted dreams of a 16-year-old girl amidst ethnic tension, power disputes, family loss, and irreversible decisions that shatter both family and country
Book Details
🛒 Brotherless Night | Kinokuniya Malaysia
Author : V.V. Ganeshananthan
Published in Jan 2023
348 pages
Historical fiction, Lit-fit, Asian Lit, War, Indian, gut-wrenching
Atmosphere & a gist of thoughts
An ambitious 16-year-old girl named Sashi grows up as a Tamil in Sri Lanka during a time approaching civil war. She is a sister who looks up to her brothers, is loved by a caring family, and dreams of becoming a doctor. Eventually, she becomes a witness and a victim of the ethnic tension. This book is about people, families, and differences in ethnic origins that tear functional families apart, turning human beings into dangerous, fearful beings. It’s also about stunted dreams, a war set to be lost, and irreversible decisions that cause brutal violence and gut-wrenching experiences.
A little backstory about Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lanka, located close to India, is part of the South Asia region. It’s home to people constantly clashing due to ethnic incompatibilities. The origin stories suggest that Tamils arrived in Sri Lanka as invaders/traders from India, while the Sinhalese arrival is more ambiguous. Tensions started from the very beginning, not out of cultural compatibility but rather out of power disputes.
The war started in 1983 and took a decade before it ended, only truly concluding about 10 years ago. It was between the Sinhalese (an ethnic group dominating Sri Lanka’s government) and the Tamils (an ethnic group running the Tigers, a movement group) who wanted a separate state for the Tamil minority. These tensions led to the Civil War.
This story is written in the first person by our main girl, Sashi, in a very lyrical and beautifully written way. It reads like a memoir but is an actual piece of fiction. There is a beautiful literary quality to this book, reflecting real events. Before reading this book, I knew very little about Sri Lanka. I learned in History class that Indian people in Malaysia have ancestors from India and Sri Lanka who traded Indian spices and herbs back in the 1600s/1700s, but that was all I knew. So when I started reading this book, it felt very educational and an eye-opener for me.
What I Love About This Book
This book has left a big impact on me and moved me as a reader. It is very descriptive and detailed in its writing, especially since the storyline is based on real events and characters. Through the writing, I could visualize a happy family at the beginning of the story: ambitious children who want to become doctors or lawyers someday, looking up to their father and wanting to grow up to be like him, a loving mother, protective siblings, a tight-knit community in the neighborhood, beautiful imagery of reading corners in Indian households, delicious Tamil meals, and snippets of the city's scenery.
Slowly, a functional community turns into horrifying and traumatizing scenes as the Civil War starts, with towns destroyed, dead bodies decorating the roadside, and libraries burned down. The toll it takes destroys the harmony and lives of many families.
I love how all the characters in the book carry their own weight and have distinct personalities and voices. Especially Sashi, described as the only daughter in the family, always protected by her brothers, a very hardworking and ambitious teenager, and a big-hearted person who just wants to learn to be a doctor and help people! The story grows increasingly painful to read as we witness her experience the loss of her brother, as suggested by the book's title.
I also learned about how women were treated and perceived during the 80s. There was a representation of Mahatma Gandhi’s views, which were interpreted as patriarchal and dismissive of women's rights, assuming that women are built to handle pain—this pissed me off because I thought he was someone to be admired and idolized. I will reserve more comments about him until I have a better understanding of his beliefs and philosophy. Through the book, I do not agree with his thinking that women are better suited to feeling pain because we are built and designed for that reason. Women do not want to suffer! Why does it have to be dumped on us, and for what reason?!
There were references to strong female characters in this story, especially Sashi’s mentor Anjali Acca, Sashi’s own mother, and Sashi herself, showing heroic acts as we learn more about them and their experiences. The male characters, who started off as ambitious and goal-oriented, change "for a good cause," and we witness their struggles and pain as they get stuck in the war. They are all driven by a strong focus despite facing challenges and loss!
I love seeing how the voice feels similar to Min Jin Lee's "Pachinko," a novel about a Korean family who immigrates to Japan, and V.V. Ganeshananthan’s writing style feels similar to Elif Shafak's, who also writes very deep and reflective.
This story made me deeply reflect : (basically, what I hate)
On how the twisted society we live in today. The fight to protect the rights of certain people has often turned into self-important actions. Instead of wasting time fighting over ethnic differences and abusing the majority's rights by creating laws, we should treat each other as human beings—every life matters.
This book provides a deep, introspective look at the struggles that minorities face not only in Sri Lanka but also in many other countries, just to live functionally. If the majority claims to struggle to obtain certain benefits while being subsidized and receiving government support, they may be unaware and ignorant of how minorities have to find alternative means to experience the same benefits. Have we thought about this? It’s an unspoken reality that we refuse to admit. This is why we often see minorities being known for their hard work and high resilience. Conversely, they can also have negative experiences. This division, created by governments, roots these issues, majority feels superior and minority feels excluded and left behind. The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is one example to learn from.
The laws and policies created to protect ethnic rights can cause more harm and exclusion rather than protecting and benefiting people. In the long run, they create a preferential culture that favors those included in the policies. This is something to think about!
What I struggle about this book
Good god, I can’t think of anything; the story is seamless! The fact that it is historical fiction, tightly based on real-life events, makes it hard to find any struggles with a fact-based story.
Favourite quotes, words & others
The image I found and added to the blog serves as an illustrative representation to help convey the essence of what I read.
Trigger Points
Rape, war violence, civilian attacks, bombing
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dumbledore's Wisdom ~ A masterpiece! It’s definitely feels very educational whilst reading this book, loaded with fact-based story, deep insights and introspective about human beings today, it’s basically a treasure! Plot, writing style, daring for surfacing the truth and offers perspective through a lens of a minority people.
Here’s how I rate books I read
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