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How does a young man become “radicalized?” Subject him, his family, and his community to injustice, ignite his anger with senseless acts of violence, and you will see him abandon his education, livelihood, and family to seek justice in a way he sees possible in the short term. In the absence of education, he becomes filled with hate, violence, and destruction.
What then, if he turns into the same people he despises? What if, backed into a corner, he adopts the same senseless strategies that pushed him onto this path? Does anyone win? Perhaps not. More often, everyone loses. This is the sadness of war, the heartbreak of families torn to shreds, lives upended or ended too soon.
V V Ganeshananthan’s uncompromising novel Brotherless Night , the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2024 , is a simply written account of enormous personal loss. It systematically documents the events, small and big, in the life of a family in Jaffna during the time of the Civil War in Sri Lanka from 1985-89, and the clashes between the Sinhalese government based in Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) based in Jaffna.
Amid the background of political unrest, turmoil, and grave danger, there are stories of friendship, love, and longing: abiding friendships, lasting, truncated, or unrequited love, longing for a ‘normal’ life, a life of simplicity, predictability, impossible in the midst of Civil War.
Sashikala Kulenthiren, the narrator, is a young woman in her teens, then 20s, as the narrative progresses, growing up in a family with four brothers, three older, and one younger. She is an aspiring doctor, following in the footsteps of her adored oldest brother Niranjan, as well as doctor-in-training K, the childhood companion who makes her heart race. Sashi’s father works away from home, and is largely absent as critical moments unfold and more and more young men from the neighborhood simply disappear. Some join the militant LTTE, also called the Tamil Tigers, while others are arrested by the government, never to be heard from again. Her mother steps out of her comfort zone into a primary role, joins forces with other women and mothers to demand answers and seek justice.
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Brotherless Night highlights the power of women when they organize as a community. A determined mother is a force unto herself. Dozens, hundreds, and thousands of determined mothers and sisters can stop a government in its tracks, even if it is for a short period. This book is a tribute to the women who sought to right wrongs, to save lives, to keep the peace. Foremost among them is Professor of Anatomy Dr. Anjali Parameswaran (addressed as Anjali Acca by her students,) modeled after Dr. Rajani Thiranagama , who was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers for her moderate views. A revered figure in Sri Lankan history, she also features as the white-coated spirit, Dr. Ranee in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka’s 2022 Booker Prize-winning tale of the Sri Lankan Civil War in which the quotidian dances with the supernatural in a maelstrom of reality and make-believe.
Sashi is gentle but deliberate; possessed of deep conviction, she shows small, measured acts of courage, even if they are not fiery or flamboyant. As the horrors she witnesses and experiences increase, her voice remains young, idealistic, and vulnerable. Her words are poignant: “You must understand: I have to tell myself again because even though I was there, it seems impossible.”
The terror of a family hiding at home as armed agents of harm approach closer every minute, the horror of hearing, then seeing neighbors being slaughtered for belonging to a different ethnic group — Ganeshananthan relates these stories slowly, and with bone-chilling, bloodcurdling detail. There is no out here – no opportunity to imagine for a moment that it was not so bad. It was horrific, and she tells it how it was, from the exploding bombs and the point-blank executions to the violence against women. And no one is exempt– she shines the light on all perpetrators – the Sinhalese government, the Tamil militants, the Indian Peacekeeping Force. She showcases the callousness of politicians for whom lives are dispensable, even if they can be saved – a hunger strike that could have been called off, but wasn’t.
All this is told through the lens of a wistful sister struggling to hold on to her brothers and the tight, loving family they were – holding onto their persons, and the memories of the love they shared.
A resolute humanist, Sashi is inspired by Anjali Acca to write down everything she has seen, and joins efforts to document the experiences of those affected by the war. In The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, incriminating photographs were the fiercely protected treasure; here it is the written word. The narrator helps others bear witness, and brings their stories to the larger world. A carefully compiled, anthropologically sound collection of war stories is a significant product of her efforts. A woman lives through and survives a Civil War. She makes it her life mission to give voice to those who have suffered immense loss. One is left with a lingering feeling of pointlessness – did anyone gain, did everyone lose? Brotherless Night is an important new addition to the writings from and about Sri Lanka in the time of the Civil War, and notable in having women at its center.
Brotherless Night is the winner of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2024 Carol Shields Prize, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and an NPR Book of the Year.
Raji Pillai lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes at www.rajiwrites.com. You can find her on Twitter at @rajiwrites2 More by Raji Pillai
editor@indiacurrents.com (408) 913-1612
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