Brotherless Night

PERFECT FOR FANS OF: Min Jin Lee's PACHINKO: as both a sweeping tale of an ordinary family living through extraordinary times, and an eye-opening insight into a turbulent period of historyHIGH-PROFILE ENDORSEMENTS: 'Blazingly brilliant' Celeste Ng; 'Beautiful, heart-breaking' Brit Bennett; 'Stunningly great' Curtis SittenfeldAUTHORITATIVE AND AMBITIOUS: draws on 16 years of the author's research into the Sri Lankan civil war, including interviews with former militants, human rights defenders, and scholars, as well as her own family. These stories have rarely been heard, particularly those of Tamil women civilians and dissidentsWELL-CONNECTED, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR: Ganeshananthan co-hosts a popular podcast, FICTION/NON/FICTION, about the intersection of literature and the news, featuring writers like Marlon James, Madeline Miller and Jia Tolentino. Her first novel was longlisted for the Women's PrizeV. 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, about the intersection of literature and the news, featuring writers like Marlon James, Madeline Miller and Jia Tolentino. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota.V.V. Ganeshananthan's novel Brotherless Night reveals the moral nuances of violence, ever belied by black-and-white terminology . . . Perhaps Ganeshananthan's finest achievement is showing, with meticulous accuracy, what it feels like to inhabit a day-to-day life onto which someone else, from the privilege of great distance, can throw a word like "terrorism," and be doneA beautiful, brilliant book - it gives an accounting of the unimaginable losses suffered by a family and by a country, but it is as 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 betterBrotherless 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 stayPrepare 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 storyRiveting, heartbreaking and extraordinary for both its empathetic gaze and its clear-eyed depiction of the brutality of war, Brotherless Night is a masterpieceThrough this moving story, Ganeshananthan traces the human aspects of war-the physical losses and tragedies as well as the conflicts of values that are often the true battlefields . . . [she] forces the reader to discard a binary description of the world in favor of a more complex, human oneA searing and intimate depiction of the Sri Lankan civil war from the point of view of an aspiring doctor . . . Ganeshananthan credibly captures the horrors and pain of the conflict felt by those caught between loyalties. It all makes for a convincing and illuminating war novelA beautifully written story of resilience, loss, human connection and survival amidst the complexities and violence of warSashi's storytelling is a perfect fit for the delicate balance she is forced to walk by virtue of living in a society where running afoul of the dominant forces, saying the wrong thing, leveling too impassioned a rebuke, can prove a capital offenseWith immense compassion and deep moral complexity, V. V. Ganeshananthan brings us an achingly moving portrait of individual and societal grief. "I want you to understand," the narrator of BROTHERLESS NIGHT insists, and by the end of this blazingly brilliant novel, we do: that in a world full of turmoil, human connections and shared stories can teach us how - and as importantly, why - to survive.A heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war. This beautiful, nuanced novel follows a young doctor caught within conflicting ideologies as she tries to save lives. I couldn't put this book downStunningly greatA beautiful, brilliant book - it gives an accounting of the unimaginable losses suffered by a family and by a country, but it is as 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 betterBrotherless 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. Ganeshananthan drew me in from the very first line, and the intricacies of her characters' lives made it easy to stay

"A heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war. This beautiful, nuanced novel follows a young doctor caught within conflicting ideologies as she tries to save lives. I couldn't put this book down" BRIT BENNETT, bestselling author of THE VANISHING HALF

Sixteen-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?

"With immense compassion and deep moral complexity, V. V. Ganeshananthan brings us an achingly moving portrait of individual and societal grief. "I want you to understand," the narrator of BROTHERLESS NIGHT insists, and by the end of this blazingly brilliant novel, we do: that in a world full of turmoil, human connections and shared stories can teach us how - and as importantly, why - to survive" CELESTE NG, bestselling author of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE

"Stunningly great" Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of RODHAM, via Twitter