Thank you to Mini Prasad for this book review. Robert Koehler shared his review of this title in January 2024.
Book Review: Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
I just finished reading V. V. Ganeshananthan’s novel Brotherless Night. This novel is set during Sri Lanka’s civil war in the 1980s and chronicles the main character, Sashikala (Sashi) Kulenthiren’s dream of becoming a doctor.
Sashi, her parents and four brothers live in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. They are of Tamil origin and living in a time when anti-Tamil hatred spreads across Sri Lanka. The civil war between the Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE) and Sinhalese majority wreck Sashi’s family. The first signs of violence that Sashi experiences is the town library, where she and her brothers study, is burned down.
As the violence increases, Sashi is determined to continue her studies to become a doctor. While in the first year of medical school, Sashi is recruited by a friend to help the LTTE as a medic. Although she does not agree with the LTTE, she wants to help the people who have been embroiled in this violent war. Sashi’s parents try to send Sashi and her younger brother out of the country because of the worsening conflict. He leaves for England but Sashi joins up with her anatomy professor, Anjali Premachandran, from her medical college and the Anjali’s husband to put together documents to expose the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government and the Indian peacekeeper’s cruelty and violence towards innocent people.
I had heard bit and pieces of the Sri Lanka – Tamil conflict but never knew the full impact of the civil war on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. Although this is a novel, it is based on the civil war that happened in Sri Lanka. Anjali Premachandran was based on Rajani Thiranagama, a professor of anatomy at the medical school. Rajani was assassinated by the LTTE cadres after criticizing them for their atrocities, just as Anjali was in the novel.
I highly recommend this novel.
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