David Chariandy

Brother

'A brilliant, powerful elegy from a living brother to a lost one, yet pulsing with rhythm, and beating with life' Marlon James, Winner of the Man Booker Prize WINNER OF THE ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE WINNER OF THE TORONTO BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR Michael and Francis are the bright, ambitious sons of Trinidadian immigrants. Coming of age in the outskirts of a sprawling city, the brothers battle against careless prejudices and low expectations. While Francis aspires to a future in music, Michael dreams of Aisha, the smartest girl in their school, whose eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But one sweltering summer night the hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably cut short. In this timely and essential novel, David Chariandy builds a quietly devastating story about the love between a mother and her sons, the impact of race, masculinity and the senseless loss of young lives.

Canadian author David Chariandy writes a letter to his daughter to share with her the story of his life and to talk to her about the politics of race in her world.

A Letter to My Daughter

I've Been Meaning to Tell You

Soucouyant

A beautiful cross-cultural novel about loss, remembrance, and the unbreakable ties between mother and son.

Kardes

"A brilliant, powerful elegy from a living brother to a lost one, yet pulsing with rhythm, and beating with life." --Marlon James "Highly recommend Brother by David Chariandy--concise and intense, elegiac short novel of devastation and hope." --Joyce Carol Oates, via Twitter WINNER--Toronto Book Award WINNER--Rogers' Writers' Trust Fiction Prize WINNER--Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction Esquire Best Books of the Year Kirkus Best Books of the Year Guardian Best Books of the Year New York Public Library Best Books of the Year Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist PEN Open Book Awards Longlist Orwell Prize for Political Fiction Longlist The Believer Book Awards Longlist “Every sentence feels like a polished stone.” -Entertainment Weekly “Elegiac and incendiary” -Boston Globe “A dwarf star of mourning and regret” -Wall Street Journal “Elegant, vital, indubitably dope” -Guardian “An important, vital and groundbreaking book” -Medium “An absolutely mammoth literary talent” -KIESE LAYMON “Riveting, composed, charged with feeling” -MADELEINE THIEN In luminous, incisive prose, a startling new literary talent explores masculinity, race, and sexuality against a backdrop of simmering violence during the summer of 1991. One sweltering summer in the Park, a housing complex outside of Toronto, Michael and Francis are coming of age and learning to stomach the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry. While their Trinidadian single mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home, Francis helps the days pass by inventing games and challenges, bringing Michael to his crew's barbershop hangout, and leading escapes into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the beats and styles of hip hop, Francis dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. Honest and insightful in its portrayal of kinship, community, and lives cut short, David Chariandy's Brother is an emotional tour de force that marks the arrival of a stunning new literary voice.

David Chariandy

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