Although she doesn't agree with the rebellion as they commit many atrocities as well, Sashi makes the decision to provide medical care for the rebels but questions helping the rebellion. 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 -- Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. When the beloved older brother is killed in an attack, two of her brothers and the friend join the Tamil Tigers. In this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.

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. Sri Lankans were a part of this horrific war that lasted three decades and never once did they receive any aid from the United Nations. She is a typical teenager studying for her exams in hopes of getting into medical school when she first witnesses signs of unrest. I have read books that touched on the Sri Lanka Civil War between the majority population Sinhalese and the Tamil minority. She is drawn to volunteer in a Tamil field hospital, treating cadre and civilian victims of the war.

The problem I have with the five star scale on Goodreads--or at least the way I rate books on it--is there is no way to distinguish "excellent" from "everyone must drop everything and read this book now. It is a masterpiece, giving us one woman's perspective of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and simultaneously showing us how in that one perspective lies everything.

This is a beautiful, lyrical novel based on a sad and deadly chapter in history in Sir Lanka, South Asia. Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence.This is a novel that works the particular alchemy of the best fiction: it feels like life, but more so. Sashi dreams of becoming a doctor just like her eldest brother but after the violence of the war begins, her entire world and everything she knows turns upside down. We slowly see how the conflict breaks families and creates families , it breaks ideals and creates new purpose. It’s one I can highly recommend to anyone who likes historical fiction or just wants to know more about the world we live in.

Despite the wrenching honesty of the novel, the strength of those who survive is powerful and somehow uplifting. Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. We experience the incredible tragedies which occurred to ordinary people as a result of the civil war. I had never heard of this horrible and tragic event and the way it's framed through Sashi's eyes makes it compelling and a page turner.Ultimately it is the civilian victims--some of whom take extraordinary and courageous risks to fight back (including the narrator)--who are unambiguously and without any moral complexity the heroes of this account. It is a loose history of the horrible impact of the civil war, and the toll it takes on countries, families, and in particular, one young lady with hopes and aspirations.

This book is filled with emotional moments, and I got to have those moments without the narrator telling me how to feel. As part of the Tamil minority, her family is expected to support the militant group the Tamil Tigers. I know reading is for fun, I review books on the internet in my spare time for enjoyment (and sometimes for free books), it's something I choose to do, I'm not in school anymore, etc etc. He has gone to find a safe place for the family while Sinhalese rioters are murdering Tamil civilians. This book is excellent and I would recommend it to anyone, although I must say it is not an easy read in parts but neither should it be.

It will definitely stick with me as I learned so much about this specific time in Sri Lankan history. Fairly early on in the book, a wave of anti-Tamil riots rips through Colombo, with Sinhalese mobs indiscriminately killing, raping, burning, looting and unleashing horror. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among other publications.