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Brotherless Night
by V.V. Ganeshanathan

A brilliantly nuanced deep dive into the complexity of ethnic inequality in post colonial countries, this one set in Sri Lanka.

Written in first person narrative, this is the story of Sashi and her family living in Jaffna, in the predominantly Tamil north east. Due to continous discrimination, suppression and violence against the Tamils by the Sinhalese government, the Tamil Tigers form a guerrilla group tasked with militant attacks and assassinations in demand for Independence.

Swept up in idealistic fervour, Sashi's brothers and their family friend K enlist and soon Sashi herself becomes embroiled but from the inside, the organisation is as terrifying as it is from the outside.

This is a deeply personal perspective which explores every shade of grey in the grey area between oppressed and terrorist. Within Sashi's family alone there are parents, four brothers and herself and each one had a different reaction to the same experience of living under oppression based on their individual personalities and their peer groups. She brilliantly captures the gamut from mother focusing on family and daily routine, to father maintaining social standing, brothers burning with rebellious rage, blind devotion to a cause or anti rebellion escape plans.

Ganeshanathan does not rely on shock tactics to tell this deeply affecting story, nor does she use emotional manipulation, rather she writes in an almost journalistic style allowing the reader the courtesy to develop their own emotional response, which in my case is gratitude for the almost 20 years she spent researching and refining this study of how war is perceived depending on whose narrative is shared.

Ireland & UK Publication date: 29th June 2023
Thanks to #netgalley and #penguingeneraluk for the egalley