Womens Prize For Fiction Winner

Brotherless Night

by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Summary

A young Tamil woman who dreams of becoming a doctor is pulled into the violence of the Sri Lankan civil war as her brothers are drawn to the militants. Ganeshananthan writes a decade of conflict with moral precision, honouring those who resist atrocity on every side. The novel is both an intimate coming of age and a careful act of historical witness.

Historical Context & Significance

The novel took the author eighteen years to complete, drawing on extensive interviews about the Sri Lankan conflict.