However, the deeper analysis of the novel happens after the second and third read. The book is a quick read -177 pages- and can be easily digested by reading it once. The title of the book is intriguing because Brother is a word that represents loyalty, love, and dedication, but also disappointment, struggles and pain. Interestingly enough, Chariandy dedicated Brother to Austin Clarke the first black professional writer in Canada who gave voice to simple black domestic workers through his novels ( ). The author is David Chariandy, who lived in Scarborough as a child his mom was a domestic worker from Trinidad and dad was South Asian. Hope, social injustice, sibling loyalty, rebellion, and the importance of honoring the dead being all wrapped around the veil of a constant battle between learning, unlearning, and relearning follow the themes of Sophocle’s drama. He is a 2019 winner of Yale’s Windham-Campbell Prize for a body of fiction.David Chariandy starts Brother by quoting a line from Antigone a very brief reference but powerful enough to accurately present the major themes of his novel.

David’s books have been published internationally and translated into several languages. His latest book is a work of creative non-fiction entitled I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter.

His second novel entitled Brother won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Toronto Book Award, and the Ethel Wilson Book Prize, and was named a book of the year by The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, The New York City Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Esquire Magazine, and The Guardian, among other periodicals and institutions. He has co-edited three special issues of journals, most recently Transition Magazine 124 “Writing Black Canadas.” His first novel, entitled Soucouyant, was nominated for eleven literary awards, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award. His scholarly criticism has been published in journals such as Callaloo, Transition Magazine, The Journal of West Indian Literature, Postcolonial Text, The Global South, and Topia, as well as in academic books such as The Routledge Companion to Caribbean Literature and The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature. David Chariandy teaches contemporary literature, and specializes in Black, Caribbean, and Canadian fiction.

Sparknotes brother david chariandy