Brotherless Night

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan recounts the terror and tragedy of the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka. Sashi, the protagonist, narrates the story of the conflict between the government-supported soldiers, the separatist Tamil groups, and, later, the Indian peace-keeping forces. Originally published in 2023, the novel spans the history of Sri Lanka from 1981 to 2009. It follows Sashi and her family through the gathering storm of war and the personal tragedies that result. Of her four brothers, only two survive, and Sashi’s aspirations to become a physician are circumscribed by the ongoing conflict. Her friend K also becomes a victim of the war, albeit under vastly different circumstances. Sashi’s understanding of violence and the terrorism that accompanies the war is nuanced and deeply empathetic though also critical. She is haunted by the ways in which families are destroyed and brothers turn against one another. She eventually begins writing about the human rights violations committed by all groups involved, which assists her in processing her own personal experiences. Winner of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction (US) and the Women’s Prize for Fiction (UK), Brotherless Night confronts the moral cost of war and the impossible choices faced by civilians and combatants alike. 

This guide refers to the 2024 Random House trade paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, physical abuse, rape, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

In the Prologue, set in 2009, the narrator, Sashi Kulenthiren, reflects on the word “terrorist,” questioning its meaning and claiming that she herself might have once been considered a terrorist. She says that she doesn’t want that word to define her experiences. 

Part 1 returns Sashi to her adolescence in 1981, during the early days of the Sri Lankan civil unrest that would eventually escalate into a civil war. She lives in Jaffna with her Tamil family: her parents, her three older brothers—Niranjan, Dayalan, and Seelan—and her younger brother, Aran. Sashi harbors a crush on K, Seelan’s friend. 

Sashi aspires to become a doctor, like her grandfather and older brother Niranjan. She accompanies Niranjan to Colombo, where he practices medicine; they live with their grandmother at her ancestral home. Meanwhile, tensions grow more pronounced between the Sri Lankan government—controlled by the Sinhalese majority—and the Tamil separatists, who want a country of their own. Riots break out in Colombo, and Sinhalese soldiers seek to target Tamil residents. Sashi barely escapes to safety with her grandmother, and their home is burned down by the soldiers. Niranjan dies in the riots. Following this, Dayalan, Seelan, and K join the Tamil Tigers, a militant group fighting for self-rule. The government—and much of the international community—labels the Tigers as terrorists.

In Part 2, the conflict escalates, and Aran—the only son left in the house at Jaffna—is harassed and detained. Sashi and her mother join the Mother’s Front, advocating for the release of village boys captured by government forces. Her brothers and K visit home sporadically, and Sashi begins to wonder whether they are fighting a just war or prolonging a brutal conflict.

Meanwhile, Sashi is finally admitted to medical school. Her favorite class, anatomy, is taught by a professor she admires, Anjali Premachandran, who encourages her students to speak their minds. Anjali is openly critical of both the government and the Tamil militants. 

Despite her qualms, Sashi gets drawn into the conflict when K asks her to help out at the field hospital, telling her that she would be treating both cadres (Tamil fighters) and civilians. She agrees.

In Part 3, Sashi works tirelessly at the field hospital, gaining confidence in her medical abilities. Still, she is not prepared to treat her own brother Seelan, who is wounded in a mine explosion. Afterward, still in shock, she faints while taking the anatomy end-of-term exam. Anjali allows her the opportunity to rest before retaking the exam. 

Seelan and Dayalan return home for a brief visit. Seelan has recovered, though he has been hardened by the movement. He tries to recruit Aran for the cause; Sashi and her mother are furious. Aran, however, has no intention of joining. He wants no part in the endless cycle of retribution that now marks this conflict.

K visits Sashi to give her tragic news: Her brother Dayalan has been killed. The war itself continues to escalate, and the Tamil Tigers force Sashi’s family to move to smaller accommodations and commandeer their home in Jaffna. The fighting has caused transports of food and other goods to cease, and hunger has become a concern. India announces that it will send aid and assistance in the form of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), but this exacerbates tensions. Attempts to broker a peace agreement fail.

In Part 4, K volunteers to go on a hunger strike, agitating for the removal of the IPKF. He asks Sashi to attend to him as he fasts, both as a medical doctor and as a friend. She is upset but agrees. The strike is organized on a stage, and she understands that the Tigers intend for it to be a spectacle. K slowly starves to death. While some declare him a martyr, Sashi does not. In the aftermath of K’s death, Sashi approaches Anjali and Varathan. She suspects that they are the authors of the anonymous Reports that have been circulating, detailing the human rights violations committed by the government, the militants, and the IPKF. She wants to work with them, even though Anjali cautions her that the work is dangerous. Sashi begins to document events and atrocities for the Reports.

In Part 5, Sashi’s parents arrange for her and Aran to leave Sri Lanka. Sashi travels to Colombo and plans to fly out under a falsified passport. However, at the last minute, Sashi cannot bear to leave her war-ravaged country and its people, so she travels back to Jaffna to continue her work on the Reports. She finds that Anjali has been taken by the Tigers. Varathan knows that Anjali would rather he finish their work—speaking truth to power and revealing the realities of the war—than sacrifice himself in attempting to rescue her. He hides a copy of the collected Reports at an associate’s house for Sashi to retrieve before she finally flees the country. Varathan will stay back in Sri Lanka, at great personal risk, and he will continue to inform Sashi of events on the ground.

Sashi travels to New York in 1989. She delivers the Reports to the United Nations and gives them updates on the war for the next 20 years while also working as an emergency room physician. In 2009, in what appears to be the final battle in the war, the Tamil Tigers are cornered on a stretch of beach where the government demands their surrender. Unfortunately, almost 300,000 civilians are caught in the chaos. In desperation, Sashi writes to her brother Seelan, who is also in New York, asking him to use his influence with the Tigers to intervene. He invites her to visit him and says that the Tigers will not back down. Sashi feels no affection for her brother, who has been changed by the war. He urges Sashi to ask the United Nations to intervene, but it will not. As a result, innocent non-combatants perish in the fighting. The Tigers concede defeat, and Sri Lanka enters an uneasy peace.

Sashi returns to Sri Lanka to visit the No-Fire Zone where so many died: There are no markers to acknowledge the tragedy. Still, she believes that it is essential to record these events. She says that the stories of those who are gone—like Niranjan, Dayalan, and K—as well as the many civilians who suffered in the war must be told so that history can be held to account.