black_girl_reading 's review for:

Brother by David Chariandy

4.0

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I tore through the admittedly brief novel and I enjoyed it a lot. Based in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, it had the comforting familiarity of place for this Canadian locationally, but also in terms of the decade i grew up in, as a child raised by a single mom, and, most importantly, as a Black woman growing up in this place. The book is a reflection on the life and death of the older brother of the protagonist, as he and his mother reconnect with people who were close to him and them at the time of his death ten years ago. It’s a small book, but it packs a powerful punch, exploring themes of racism, queerness, poverty, immigration, ghettoization, police brutality, grief, the myth of Canadian equality, and so so much more. It was so good, and you’ve gotta read it.