Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan

In a crumbling Jaffna, the epicenter of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, seventeen-year-old Sashi comes of age. The war comes to a slow boil before she enters medical school and systematically tears her family—including her four brothers—apart. Unsure about her allegiances with the Tamil Tigers, Sashi tries to stay true to her shifting loyalties even as the world she knows crumbles. Expertly paced and nuanced in its telling of one of South Asia’s most volatile conflicts, this is one dynamite novel. That Sri Lanka is once again in dire straits because of its tumultuous economy, only reframes an anguished perspective.