BooksCanada Reads 2019

Brother by David Chariandy

David Chariandy's novel explores questions of masculinity, family, race and identity.

Defended by Lisa Ray

CBC Books Posted: Jan 31, 2019 8:00 AM EST | Last Updated: May 22, 2019

Lisa Ray is defending David Chariandy's novel Brother on Canada Reads 2019. (CBC)

Brothertakes 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 fulfil 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. (FromMcClelland& Stewart)

DavidChariandy'sBrotheris both an exceptional coming of age story and a poignant meditation on love, lossand humanity.- 2017 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize jury

Brotherwon the 2017 RogersWriters' Trust Fiction Prize, the2018 Toronto Book Awardand the 2018 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. It was alsolonglistedfor the2017ScotiabankGiller Prize.

Thefilm and television rights forBrotherhave been picked up by Toronto production companies Conquering Lion andHawkeyePictures, with Clement Virgo attached to adapt the screenplay and direct the film.

Brother by David Chariandywas defended by Lisa Ray on Canada Reads 2019.

How books helped Canada Reads author David Chariandy feel less of an outsider while growing up

Watch the book trailer

Brother trailer

5 years ago

0:48

Canada Reads trailer for Brother by David Chariandy.

Why David ChariandywroteBrother

"I'm a fiction writer and this is clearly the work of the imagination. It'sset in a time period that is very different from today's world.But I still wanted to capture what Scarborough was really like for a child in the early1990s, particularly a child with a black mother and a South Asian father growing up at that particular time.

These stories are often overlooked and ignored. I wanted to capture this narrative, one of resilience, creativity, tenderness and love.- DavidChariandy

"There was, at that time, a lot of anxiety about visible minorities moving into the area and changing the landscape. I grew up hearing these stories about people I love and respect, who were profoundly creative andhardworkingand simply had dreams of living a good life. These stories are often overlooked and ignored. I wanted to capture this narrative, one of resilience, creativity, tenderness and love."

Read an excerpt from Brother

From the book

He was my brother. The one who told me about lightning and girls. The one who crouched beside me in hideouts when we were little. His shoulder thin and bare against mine, his body always just a skin away. That summer when we were only seven and eight and we climbed the sappy pine busting out of the asphalt behind the 7-Eleven. Days after reaching for each other's hands to smell and name what clung there still. ('It'sMr. Clean,' my brother finally said, nailing it.) That fall of the same year when he led me to the road-side ditch off Lawrence Avenue and piled the loose and blowing stuff of this land over our bodies like a blanket, hoping for cover. Leaves of orange and red, dried weeds and twigs. Also trash like paper and foil and the many shredded plastic bags blown here from fast food shops. Our hats camouflaged all guerilla style with twigs and mashed up drinking straws. Our faces already thecolorof earth.

FromBrotherby DavidChariandy2017. Published byMcClelland& Stewart.

Interviews withDavid Chariandy

Canada Reads author David Chariandy on why he writes about place, identity and belonging

6 years ago

3:11

In this special Canada Reads 2019 edition of the CBC Books video series, the author of Brother talks about how he defines love and understanding in his fiction.

More aboutBrotherfrom CBC Radio

Why Lisa Ray chose Brother for Canada Reads

"Brother, set in Scarborough in the 1990s byDavidChariandy, takes us through the universal experience of loss through a coming of age story of two brothers of Trinidadianorigin. InBrother, we bear witness to the workings of kinship, class, gender, love, race, thwarted hopes and senseless tragedy. This poetic book is a ballad, it is now.It is an opportunity for Canada to claim its own modern-day opera set in our own backyard.

InBrother, we bear witness to the workings of kinship, class, gender, love, race, thwarted hopes and senseless tragedy.- Lisa Ray

"Brotherwill linger long after you finish, move you to analyze your own prejudices, to look beyond headlines and question your own idea of what is valour and heroism."

Lisa Ray on Brother

About Lisa Ray

Lisa Rayis one of India's most successful cover models and an award-winning actress whose work spans multiple countries in film (the Oscar-nominatedWater) television (Top Chef Canada), theatre (John Murrels'sTaj) and modelling.Rayhas become a high profile global advocate for cancer and stem cell awareness and was honoured with a Diamond Jubilee Medal for service to Canada. Her Amazon Prime seriesFour Shots More Pleaseis out now and her next film release is A. R. Rahman's99 Songs.

TheCanada Reads2019 contenders

Chuck Comeau, defendingHomesbyAbu Bakral RabeeahandWinnie Yeung
Lisa Ray, defendingBrotherbyDavidChariandy
Ziya Tong, defendingBy Chance AlonebyMax Eisen
Yanic Truesdale, defendingSuzannebyAnas Barbeau-Lavalette, translated byRhonda Mullins
Joe Zee, defendingThe Woo-WoobyLindsay Wong