Sri Lankan writer V. V. Ganeshananthan has won the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, for her novel Brotherless Night.
In a statement announcing the win, the prize jury called the book “ambitious and beautifully written,” and praised Ganeshananthan’s characters for asking readers to “consider how history is told, whom it serves, and the many truths it leaves out.”
US$ 150,000 is granted to winners of the award, which recognizes English-language writing by women and nonbinary authors. On top of the money, winners also win a residency at the Fogo Island Inn, on the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night centers on a young woman named Sashi, in 1981, who wants to become a doctor. But her dreams get upended as her family gets swept up in the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the minority insurgent group known as the Tamil Tigers.
“I was interested in writing about the gray space between militarized societies and questions of choice and coercion,” Ganeshananthan told WBUR’s Here & Now in a 2023 interview.
The shortlisted books for this year include Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, Daughter by Claudia Dey, Coleman Hill by Kim Coleman Foote, and A History of Burning by Janika Oza. Finalists will receive $12,500. (Newswire/ NPR)
