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Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
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Brotherless Night

'Blazingly brilliant' CELESTE NG
by V. V. Ganeshananthan
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Narrator Nirmala Rajasingam

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 13 hours 27 minutes
Language English
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Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024

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?

'A masterpiece of historical fiction' MONICA ALI, chair of judges for the Women's Prize for Fiction

'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

©2023 V. V. Ganeshananthan (P)2023 Penguin Audio

FictionHistorical FictionFiction - Literary

V. V. Ganeshananthan is the author of Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize in 2008. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others. BROTHERLESS NIGHT draws on 16 years of research into the Sri Lankan civil war. Since 2017, Ganeshananthan has co-hosted a podcast called FICTION/NON/FICTION with novelist Whitney Terrell, about the intersection of literature and the news, featuring writers like Marlon James, Madeline Miller and Jia Tolentino. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota.

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Audiobook details

Author:

Narrator:
Nirmala Rajasingam

ISBN:
9780241998854

Length:
13 hours 27 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Penguin Books Ltd

Publication date:

Edition:
Unabridged

Libro.fm rank:
#21,703 Overall

Genre rank:
#2,087 in Historical Fiction

Illustration of person opening a gift

The perfect last-minute gift

Audiobook credit bundles can be delivered instantly, given worldwide, and support local bookstores!

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Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

A careful, vivid exploration of what's lost within a community when life and thought collapse toward binary conflict [...] a novel for our own country in this odd time. Brotherless Night is a brilliant, compelling and deeply moving novel that bears witness to the intimate and epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war. In rich, evocative prose, Ganeshananthan creates a vivid sense of time and place and an indelible cast of characters. Her commitment to complexity and clear-eyed moral scrutiny combines with spellbinding storytelling to render Brotherless Night a masterpiece of historical fiction. Visceral, historical, emotional, it is 300 pages of must-read Brotherless Night is my favorite kind of novel, one so rich and full of movement that it's only later I realize how much I have learned. V. V. Ganeshananthan drew me in from the very first line, and the intricacies of her characters' lives made it easy to stay Riveting, heartbreaking and extraordinary for both its empathetic gaze and its clear-eyed depiction of the brutality of war, Brotherless Night is a masterpiece Prepare to have your heart well and truly pummelled by this searing story about a young Tamil woman growing up as the Sri Lankan civil war explodes around her . . . at times, it's hard to remember that this rich and nuanced novel isn't actually a memoir - so convincing is Sashi's voice and so compelling her story Moving and rapturous... equal parts heartbreak and rage, unravelling the tragedy of Sri Lanka's civil war with a family saga of violence, loss, impossible choices and astounding courage V.V. Ganeshananthan's novel Brotherless Night reveals the moral nuances of violence, ever belied by black-and-white terminology A beautiful, brilliant book... tender and fierce as it is mournful. It is unafraid to look directly at the worst of the violence and erasure we have perpetrated or allowed to happen, but is insistent that we can still choose to be better A devastating look at the cost of war and choosing sides Expand reviews
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