V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Brotherless Night
Novel & Short Story Category, sponsored by Minnesota Humanities Center
Each week leading up to the 36th annual Minnesota Book Awards, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
What is one detail you wanted to include in this book, but couldn’t find a place for?
I’m saving this for another book! So for now, will keep it to myself.
Tell us about someone who proved instrumental to the creation of this book.
The scholar and human rights activist Rajan Hoole’s work, both independently and as a part of University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), directly inspired my novel. Hoole and three other Tamil academics who had no formal training in human rights documented the period portrayed in my novel in their nonfiction book, The Broken Palmyra. Brotherless Night is, among other things, an homage to that volume.
Tell us about a favorite read from the past year. Why did you find it enjoyable, insightful, or memorable?
I recently read and loved The Road from Belhaven, by Margot Livesey. It’s gorgeous on the sentence level, and also a page-turner, and also truly profound. Its heroine has second sight, and it really made me think about the way we live in relation to our expectations, which of course these days, as expectations become more and more uncertain, is an important thing to consider.
Please tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
I have synesthesia.
Share your thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
I’m so grateful for libraries! I grew up regularly going to two libraries near my house in Bethesda, Maryland. My parents would let me stay there for hours, and the librarians knew me. For me, libraries were homes away from home, places where I felt deeply seen and understood. These days, they are under attack in a variety of ways, but I still see librarians demonstrating the best ways to stand up for education, freedom of speech, and freedom of information, and providing homes away from home for those who need that the most.
V.V. Ganeshananthan is the author of Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among others. She teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Minnesota.