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Brother
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Joseph Pierre
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Publisher's Summary
The long-awaited second novel from David Chariandy, whose debut, Soucouyant, was nominated for nearly every major literary prize in Canada and published internationally.
An intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, tightly constructed novel, Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991.
With shimmering prose and mesmerizing precision, David Chariandy takes us inside the lives of Michael and Francis. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their father has disappeared, and their mother works double, sometimes triple, shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home.
Coming of age in The Park, a cluster of town houses and leaning concrete towers in the disparaged outskirts of a sprawling city, Michael and Francis battle against the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry - teachers stream them into general classes; shopkeepers see them only as thieves; and strangers quicken their pace when the brothers are behind them. Always, Michael and Francis escape into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness that cuts through their neighbourhood, where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves.
Propelled by the pulsing beats and styles of hip hop, Francis, the older of the two brothers, 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.
With devastating emotional force, David Chariandy, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian literature, crafts a heartbreaking and timely story about the profound love that exists between brothers and the senseless loss of lives cut short with the shot of a gun.
What the critics say
“Brother is a bittersweet homage to the danger of hope and the awkwardness of grief.” (Catherine Hernandez, Quill & Quire)
“Chariandy's second novel, Brother...is a supremely moving and exquisitely crafted portrait of his hometown.... It is a celebration and a reckoning, a study of community and of family and of the ways each relies on the other, and of the power of art to build and the ability of those in power to destroy. It is also an act of literary cartography, an attempt to place Scarborough on the CanLit map, once and for all, and an effort by Chariandy to show ‘the importance of knowing that your world - in its beauty, in its ugliness, in its heroism, in its cowardice - [can] also be worthy of representation.’” (Mark Medley, Globe and Mail)
“[Brother is] a beautiful piece of literature - a coming of age story, a meditation on family, a novel of place - but that place is the same much maligned suburb Chariandy grew up in, and the younger brother’s life in a racist milieu is central to novel’s power.” (Brian Bethune, Maclean’s Magazine)
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What listeners say about Brother
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-06-09
Easy to loose yourself in this audiobook
This is an amazing novel. It is written so poetically and with so much emotion, the narrator really does this story justice.
3 people found this helpful
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- mrspalmer
- 2020-02-19
Amazing coming of age story
well written book! loved it!! I could relate to many parts of the story having grown up in a family with Caribbean heritage.
2 people found this helpful
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- James
- 2019-01-31
Fantastic reflection on life
Brother is a fantastic reflection on what it means to be a child (to have parents), on being a sibling, on race and religion, and on class identity. I loved Chariandy's last novel and this didn't disappoint despite the wide class and racial differences between me and the protagonist.
2 people found this helpful
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- Jennifer Chambers
- 2018-09-19
Great characters, setting, will linger long after
This short novel is rife with riveting characters, a strong sense of place and setting, and a terrific overall reading by Joseph Pierre. The story of two brothers raised in Scarborough by their mother, and their two different routes in life, their very different personalities, and the effects they have on one another, bring this novel alive. The setting, and Chariandy's descriptions throughout of the community and place are compelling, too. This story and its characters linger long after you've finished hearing it.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2019-02-02
one of Canada reads finalist 2019
a story of complicated grief and the pain of those left behind. one of Canada reads finalist for 2019, theme: books to move you.
2 people found this helpful
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Extraordinary
This book gets into your soul--subtle and indelible. The characters, the writing, the depth of story that plunges the reader far below the still surface...everything about this book is perfection.