V. V. Ganeshanathan

Jaffna, Sri Lanka in the early 1980’s. There are six children, four brothers and a sister from one family and another boy from down the street, They are involved in their normal activities and dreams: three hope to be doctors, two engineers and the youngest undecided.

But then war breaks out between the ethnic Tamil minority and the Sinhalese government. It quickly becomes bloody and the families are swept up in the maelstrom of fighting and death of protracted civil war.
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One of the Tamil groups, the Tamil Tigers fight not only the government groups but other Tamil groups. One brother is killed; three of the group join the Tigers. The girl, Sashi, from whose perspective the story is told. goes on to medical school but is also swept up into helping the Tigers when the neighbor boy K brings her a wounded Tiger to help.

There is no place to hide. Childhood homes are destroyed or commandeered. Friends, acquaintances and teachers die, and even the Indian troops brought in to establish order rape and pillage.

Finally, although a lucky few Tamils have escaped to other countries, the Tamil civilians are caught between the Tamil Tigers making a last stand at the ocean’s edge and the Sinhalese troops. Each side kills the civilians trying to escape.

This is an intense, devastating novel detailing the complexities of this civil war – making it understandable and human. The characters were diverse, believable and well rounded. I mourned the deaths in this novel and I was sad when the story was over. 5 stars… (altro)

An excellent and informative read. I did not know much about the civil war in Sri Lanka prior to reading this book

In Jaffna, 1981, sixteen year old Sashi dreams of becoming a doctor. She lives with her two parents , and her brothers, Niranjan, age 25, Daylan, 19, Seelan, 17 and her younger brother , Aran , 13. The family is Tamil , and lives a happy enough life, until the civil war tears the family apart, with some of her brothers joining the Tamil Tigers ( the movement ) and one resisting. As time goes on , Sashi is accepted into medical school. A friend of hers , K, secretly brings an injured Tamil Tiger to her for treatment. She treats him, but as K says, p.158 "But you don't believe in the movement." Sashi replies "It's not safe to let you in, it's not safe to to turn you away - it's not right to let a man die in the hall of a medical school when there are supplies to help him just a metres away. What would you have me do? " From there, Sashi, very conflicted, ends up secretly serving as a medic in a field hosptial for the Tamil Tigers.

Sashi bears witness to the warring factions of the Sinhalese government, Tamil militants and the Indian government peacekeeping factions. All committed atrocities This is a difficult but compassionate read , filled with the moral complexity of this war.

Highly recommended.… (altro)

Tyger Tyger burning bright

Media: Audio
Read by Nirmala Rajasingam
Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Written in the form of a chronical, Brotherless Night tells the fictionalized story of a young woman’s life during the early years of the Sri Lanka civil war. It’s told from the vantage point of the young woman whose journey ends in her settling in New York before the civil war has ended.

The story starts with sixteen year old Sashi, the young Tamil girl who is living comfortably with her family in Sri Lanka. But there is unrest in their country.

In 1983 ethnic tensions erupted into an all-out civil war which was to last 25 years. The war was fought between the Tamil Tigers (predominantly Hindu) and the Sinhalese government forces (predominantly Buddhist). After some years the Indian government sent troops - supposedly as peace keepers, but becoming another source of violence.

At times I was reminded of Adiche’s Half of a Yellow Sun set in present day Nigeria, where the ethnic divisions, encouraged by the colonizing British caused problems when they left after favoring an ethinic minority. In Nigerians it was the Biafrans, in Sri Lanka it was the Tamils.

Knowing something of modern Sri Lankan history is a help in reading Brotherless Nights, but is not necessary. The story stops before the war ends.

I’m not going to give a synopsis of the book as you can easily find it elsewhere. But a few aspects of what is essentially a piece of historical fiction stood out.

The format is that of a chronical. Sashi is writing down the events as she experiences them. Where do these events come from? They are fiction but based on actual history. The chronicle is told in first person by the made-up character of Sashi. Ganeshanathan has researched the history, the participants and events, from her home in the U.S where she was born of Sri Lankan parents.

Knowing this I was disconcerted at times. It reads as if it was autobiographical but we know it is not. Most events are either anecdotal or completely made-up, as are the characters. So there’s a lack of authenticity though of course similar events occurred many times, and the characters are based on real people or amalgamations thereof. The descriptions are so realistic that they become believable but we know they are not.

It’s a chronical, but fictionalized and there’s some editorializing. There’s also some introspection. In the final chapter Sashi looks back on her life and the historical records (which is in fact the book we are reading) which she has been maintaining in order that the truth gets out. We are reading about the book we are reading.

There’s also the way that Sashi talks directly to the reader with questions like “What would you do in such a situation?” and, “Do you think he’ll answer the door?”. The first time this happened I thought that I’d misread and had to go back to check, but then I got used to it. I half-expected to find out that Sashi was in fact addressing one of her brothers, and that remains a possibility for me.

I liked Brotherless Night. I ended up liking Ganeshanathan‘s style, though at first I thought I would tire of the novel. I became engrossed. I liked the nuance and the political detail, some of which was new to me.

I do wonder whether Ganeshanathan will write another novel. The only other novel she’s written to date was her debut, Love Marriage and it was during the writing of that novel that she came upon the idea of Brotherless Night which took her over ten years. She’s American now and I feel she will need to move on. The success of Brotherless Night lies a lot in its subject matter.

The timing of Brotherless Night is apt for the 2023-4 reader. With the terrorism, the accusation of human shields, the collateral damage, the reader has to keep her mind to stop fleeting to the situation in Gaza.

Even with my reservations I have to highly recommend this book. There’s something about it that speaks to the reader that is beyond its exhaustive research. It speaks to the heart.… (altro)