V.V. Ganeshananthan explores the complexity of Sri Lanka's civil war in her prize-winning novel
The American writer discussed Brotherless Night on Bookends with Mattea Roach
Writing historical fiction is a research-heavy task. Just ask V.V. Ganeshananthan, who spent almost 20 years working on her novel Brotherless Night, set in Jaffna, Sri Lanka during the civil war.
By using research to craft compelling characters and bring female perspectives to historical events, Ganeshananthan's hard work paid off.
Brotherless Night not only won two of the biggest fiction prizes in the world, the UK Women's Prize and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, but it also won over readers, including Bookends' own Mattea Roach.
"One thing I love about historical fiction, and especially historical fiction that covers relatively recent events, is that it gives me a way to learn about political events, about conflict, in a more personal and nuanced way," said Mattea Roach when they spoke with Ganeshananthan on Bookends. "And that's what I loved about Brotherless Night."
Ganeshananthan is an American writer and journalist of Ilankai Tamil descent. Her other novel is Love Marriage, which also traces parts of Tamil history. Based in Minneapolis, she teaches at the University of Minnesota.
She joined Roach to discuss the challenges of writing historical fiction and the characters at the heart of her story.
Mattea Roach: Sashi, the book's protagonist, is 16 years old at the start of the novel. She's a bright girl, she's studious and she was really trying to achieve great things, studying for a place in medical school. Can you tell me a little bit more about her and situate what her hopes and dreams are for the future at the start of this novel?
V.V. Ganeshananthan: When the novel begins, it's 1981 and she is studying for university entrance exams, which she anticipates taking relatively soon. She is trying to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, who is someone who provided reproductive healthcare to women in the capital city of Colombo.
She also comes from a society where that particular profession of physician is really mythologized, valourized and idealized. Doctors are heroes and also understood to have comparatively comfortable lives. She thinks that this is both a moral profession and also one that could help her and her family, so she's interested in pursuing that. Her oldest brother [Niranjan], who is also probably her favourite brother, is already a doctor and is trying to help her by doing things like passing along his textbooks.
There are a lot of students in Sri Lanka during this time period who are perhaps studying to become doctors because that's what they think they should do. And she does think she should do it, but she's also actually interested in the science of it, which is something that the book is attempting to convey: her genuine interest in this kind of caregiving and medicine.
MR: Can you tell me a little bit more about Sashi's relationship with Niranjan specifically?
VVG: She idealizes the medical profession generally, but she idealizes Niranjan specifically. He's her hero. All of the siblings get along with him. He's sort of a leader and a peacemaker and he's someone who's generally very calm, very steady. But he's also, in his own way, a little bit of a quiet rebel. He's involved in student groups that are doing progressive reading. There's a little bit of an implication that he might be involved in some kinds of activism. So he's also someone who tells Sashi that she should see things for herself and not just listen to what other people say. He encourages in her a kind of independence, including an independence from him.
He encourages in her a kind of independence, including an independence from him.- V.V. Ganeshananthan
When she finds herself in a particularly difficult moment struggling with her studies, he comes up with a way for her to go on an adventure and to accompany him to a new place. And all of this means a huge amount to her. She also just thinks he's a lot of fun.
MR: Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the Tamil community, their background in Sri Lanka and how some of the historical context of their experiences under colonialism, for instance, set the stage for this conflict that we saw play out from the '80s into the 2000s?
VVG: I find that when I read about the war, it's often described in binary terms, so it is perhaps described as Tamil versus Sinhalese. And in fact, Sri Lanka has a number of communities and multiple Tamil communities, so the Tamil community in Jaffna, which is the one that Sashi comes from, is quite particular.
A lot of the Tamil community was educated in English or was fluent in English. During the British colonial period, Tamil representation in civil service was very common. Post independence in 1948, there were some measures taken to address what was seen as an inequality in how these communities have been treated.
So, for example, there was the Sinhala Only Act, establishing what would be used as the official government language. Early in the book, you see Sashi's father remembering — and he's a civil servant — that there was a moment when people were sort of told you have to learn Sinhalese or you're going to lose your jobs.
British colonialism, in a very classic for British colonialism fashion, pitted communities against each other. Then after the Empire left (ish), those communities, in attempting to address those historical injustices, sometimes created new problems or entrenched older ones, rather than working in a more pluralistic way to address them.
MR: What were some of the challenges and joys of the research process, which spanned many years, many interviews and a lot of reading? And how did you also separate out the journalistic training that you have with wanting to make this beautiful work of craft?
VVG: Working as a journalist was hugely helpful in that. I think that there are writers who turn a beautiful ornate sentence. I'm probably not that person. I think I'm trying to write sentences that are intensely clear. That was my style when the material was really dense and complex.
You have to be willing to consider the idea that someone who doesn't appear to be good might have a streak of goodness in them.- V.V. Ganeshananthan
Trying to study Sri Lankan history as objectively as possible is an extremely good and kind of rough education in skepticism, critical thinking and learning how to identify propaganda. Anything that could be weird or hard or strange or a lie or astonishingly truthful — it has all happened and someone has told the story that way.
So it's all in there. But you have to be willing to be both intensely skeptical and also willing to consider the idea that someone who doesn't appear to be good might have a streak of goodness in them.
V.V. Ganeshananthan's comments have been edited for length and clarity. This interview was produced by Katy Swailes.
