The Jaffna Public Library in northern Sri Lanka. One of the significant events of the Sri Lankan civil war depicted in V V Ganeshanathan novel includes Sinhala police forces burning the library with its entire collection of ninety thousand volumes in June 1981. Photo: Pond5 Images / IMAGO
The Jaffna Public Library in northern Sri Lanka. One of the significant events of the Sri Lankan civil war depicted in V V Ganeshanathan novel includes Sinhala police forces burning the library with its entire collection of ninety thousand volumes in June 1981. Photo: Pond5 Images / IMAGO

Southasia Review of Books podcast #01: V V Ganeshananthan on women's writing on the Sri Lankan civil war

A conversation with novelist V V Ganeshananthan about the books that define her latest novel ‘Brotherless Night’ and women’s writing on Sri Lanka’s long history of anti-Tamil violence

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, the novelist V V Ganeshananthan joins host Shwetha Srikanthan, assistant editor at Himal Southasian, to talk about the books that define her latest novel, Brotherless Night, and women’s writing on Sri Lanka’s long history of anti-Tamil violence.

V V Ganeshananthan, also known as Sugi, is the author of the novels Brotherless Night (a New York Times Editors’ Choice) and Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post. She also teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota, where she is an associate professor of English, and co-hosts the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast on Literary Hub, looking at the intersection of literature and the news.

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