Brother: A Novel

Brother is a young adult contemporary fiction novel written by David Chariandy and published in 2017. Set in the Canadian city of Scarborough, Brother is a coming-of-age novel about two Canadian Trinidadian brothers who seek identity in the face of racism, poverty, and uncertainty about their future. Through the central character and narrator, Michael, the novel explores the lasting effects of trauma and loss as he attempts to protect his mother after a family tragedy. Chariandy, a Canadian author and professor of English at Simon Fraser University, grew up in Scarborough and uses many autobiographical elements to inform the story. Brother is the winner of the 2017 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. The novel was adapted into a film of the same title in 2022 that won several Canadian Screen Awards.

This study guide references the 2017 edition published by Bloomsbury Publishing Place.

Content Warning: This guide describes and discusses the source text’s depictions of police brutality, murder, and racism.

Plot Summary

Brother unfolds through dual narratives that alternate between the present and the past. The narrator, Michael, revisits the past through his memories.

Francis and Michael are brothers who grow up in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. Their mother, Ruth, is from Trinidad, but Francis and Michael are not connected with their Trinidadian roots. At a young age, they learn from the media and personal experience that being Black in Canada means being suspected of criminality.

Ruth is a single parent who works long hours as a cleaner to provide for her family. She is eager to keep her sons away from trouble, but there are plenty of temptations in Scarborough because many of its young people lack a sense of purpose or hope for the future. Francis is both intelligent and streetwise, but after he is transferred into a basic education program, he loses interest in school and is expelled from high school after cursing at a teacher. He works odd jobs and starts spending his days with other young men and boys who aren’t in school. Francis’s proximity to a shooting that kills another boy in the neighborhood causes tension between Francis and Ruth. Francis moves out of their apartment and spends more time with his friends. Francis finds out where his father is and brings Michael along to meet their father, but their father refuses to see them.

Francis and his best friend, Jelly, have big dreams about Jelly’s DJ career. Jelly blends North American and West African culture through his music, a testament to the diversity of his community. Francis watches Jelly’s audition for a talent scouting competition in the area. The producers don’t seem impressed by Jelly, which saddens and angers Francis. Francis gets into a fight with the bouncers of the event because he is desperate to get back in to advocate for Jelly. Francis and his friends, along with Michael, regroup at a barbershop, their local hangout. The cops arrive for no reason other than to patrol the neighborhood. Francis, disappointed by the audition and tired of being targeted and harassed by the police for being Black, stands up for himself and for Jelly. A police officer shoots and kills Francis.

Francis’s death puts a pause on Michael’s and Ruth’s lives. Ruth’s grief is so profound that it impacts her mental health. She is unable to live alone and requires careful attention. Michael uses his mother’s condition as an excuse to avoid the people in his neighborhood.

Michael’s friend from high school, Aisha, returns to town for her father’s funeral. Aisha was a bright student who left Scarborough on a university scholarship and has a career and home far away from Scarborough. Aisha tries to reconnect Michael to Jelly and other members of the community. She sees that giving Michael and his mother more connection to the outside world will help them to confront what happened to Francis and finally move through their pain.

Michael is wary of Aisha’s plans to bring the outside world back into his life. Like Ruth, Michael doesn’t want to confront the past even though the past oppresses him and prevents him from meeting his full potential. Ruth seems to embrace Jelly, but Michael still has difficulty being around him after the shooting. Aisha hosts a small party in Michael’s house to honor Francis’s memory. Ruth is happy to share pictures of Francis with the guests, and the music playing evokes the Black culture Michael has turned away from since Francis’s death.

Ruth is hit by a car while on a walk with Jelly. Though she survives with minor physical injuries, the doctors note that they’re more concerned about her mental health. When she is released from the hospital, Michael sees that Aisha and Jelly have been waiting for them. No matter how much he tries to push them away, Aisha and Jelly insist on being present for him and his mother. Back at home, Jelly plays music for Ruth. Michael again wants to protect Ruth from overexcitement or accessing sad memories, but she asks Jelly to play the music louder, signaling hope that Michael and Ruth will reconnect with their culture, their community, and the things in life that bring them joy.