Brotherless Night
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By V. V. Ganeshananthan
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WINNER OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
‘A masterpiece of historical fiction’ MONICA ALI, chair of judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war tears through her hometown of Jaffna, her dream takes her on a different path as she sees those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. Desperate to act, she must ask herself: is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?
‘An unforgettable account of a country and a family coming undone… Brotherless Night is a spectacular work of historical fiction’ Guardian
‘A heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war’ BRIT BENNETT, bestselling author of THE VANISHING HALF
‘Blazingly brilliant’ CELESTE NG, bestselling author of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE
‘Stunningly great’ Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY, via Twitter
‘Ganeshananthan is a superb writer…I wept at many points in this novel and I also wept when it was over’ Sunday Times
WINNER OF THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION
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St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 2nd July 2026.
Brotherless Night. V.V. Ganeshananthan.
The reading group found this an interesting book. Because of its subject matter it was hardly ‘enjoyable’, but several people said they were ‘glad to have read it’. A sobering tale, we thought, and one which was perhaps the author’s way of rationalising or talking through what had happened.
We talked about Sashi’s dilemma: her instinct to help people and her wish to become a doctor and heal them, as against her involvement with the Tamil Tigers “terrorist” movement; her love for her brothers, two of whom died in the troubles, whilst at the same time the whole family were under huge pressure to identify with the Tamil cause which endangered them all. Sashi’s father seemed a shadowy figure, we thought, and possibly less than supportive. The women concerned, though, presented a strong face, pulling together their own movement and making large individual contributions as well.
We discussed our own knowledge of the civil wars in Sri Lanka and how this book added details to it – the help from India which was promised and which initially arrived but later fell apart; the Tamil factions and how there being so many of them may not have helped the cause; and the hardness of a civil war which turns neighbour against neighbour. We realised how lucky we are not to have had to dig bunkers in our back gardens (though our parents and grandparents lived through European wars) and to have lived in a time of peace.
A thought-provoking book, of ‘deep moral complexity’ as the back cover suggests, and revealing the sadness of unresolved issues arising from civil war.
