Taking home this year’s prize is US writer and journalist V V Ganeshananthan for her second novel, ‘Brotherless Night’, which took her almost two decades to complete. Her debut novel, ‘Love Marriage’, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2009. ‘Brotherless Night’ is the story of Sashi, a 16-year-old aspiring doctor, growing up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the 1980s. The novel vividly and compassionately centres erased and marginalised stories – Tamil women, students, teachers, ordinary civilians – exploring the moral nuances of violence and terrorism against a backdrop of oppression and exile. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, this is Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today is the winner of the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction, which is awarded annually by the Women's Prize Trust, the UK charity which enriches society by creating equitable opportunities for women in the world of books and beyond.
This year, the prize went to an American author with Sri Lankan heritage for her deeply moving, powerful second novel, Brotherless Night, which depicts a family fractured by the Sri Lankan civil VV Ganeshananthan.
Welcome to Meet the Writers.
Please, can I call you Sugi?
Yes.
Thank you so much for having me.
What does VIVI stand for?
It stands for Vasugi Vani.
But I usually only got called out when I was little and I was in trouble.
So.
No, we're talking the morning after the prize.
We are, and it was a late night for many of us.
I'm sure you were celebrating.
How are you feeling today?
Still stunned, still excited, still awash in the good feelings of being in such a wonderful community of readers and writers.
Let's take you right back to the beginning because this book has been almost really gestating for a lifetime.
Can we start with your family background?
I know that your parents came from Sri Lanka.