Brother RGG CE

Brother
by David Chariandy
These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group’s discussion about
Brother, a novel about two brothers whose lives are torn apart in the aftermath of a tragic
shooting.
About this book
One sweltering summer in “The Park,” a housing complex outside of Toronto, Michael
and Francis are coming of age and learning to stomach the careless prejudices and low
expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry. While their
Trinidadian single mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill
the elusive promise of their adopted home, Francis helps the days pass by inventing
games and challenges, bringing Michael to his crew’s barbershop hangout, and leading
escapes into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness where they are
free to imagine better lives for themselves.
Propelled by the beats and styles of hip hop, Francis dreams of a future in music.
Michael’s dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school, whose own eyes are
firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably
thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that
follow.
Honest and insightful in its portrayal of kinship, community, and lives cut short, David
Chariandy’s Brother is an emotional tour de force that marks the arrival of a stunning
new literary voice.
For discussion
1. Why does Chariandy begin Brother with the anecdote about the lookout? How do
the lessons about climbing and memory outlined in this section come into play
elsewhere in the novel?
2. Did you enjoy Chariandy’s narrative technique of alternating between a present-

day story and flashbacks? What is the effect of telling the story in this style?
3. How does Michael and Francis’s relationship as brothers evolve over the course
of the events depicted in Brother? Of the flashbacks to their childhood, which
event(s) have the biggest impact on their relationship and why?
4. What does the implied relationship between Francis and Jelly tell us about each of
their characters as individuals? Why do you think Chariandy presents their
relationship in the subtle way he does?
5. Why is Michael reluctant to let Aisha organize a gathering for Ruth? When he
comes home and discovers a “crowd of strangers” in his house, why does he have
such a negative response? Do you think his actions are appropriate, or should he
have behaved differently?
6. How do Michael’s feelings towards Aisha change over the course of the novel,
both in the present-day story and in flashbacks? Discuss the events that precipitate
the shifts in his feelings and why.
7. Michael mentions the notion of “complicated grief” in relation to his mother.

Based on what we know about Ruth and her relationship with her sons, what is
keeping her “mired in mourning,” as Michael puts it, over losing Francis?
8. Brother takes place in Canada. Do you think the story is specific to the setting, or
is it more universal? Why or why not?
9. How does the idea of “home” and its connotations factor into Brother? Discuss
the concept of “home” in its various iterations as viewed by Michael, Francis,
Ruth, and Aisha.
10. Discuss Michael’s recollections of their family trip to Trinidad and Tobago. What
do we learn about Ruth through this flashback? What do you think Chariandy is
attempting to say about the immigrant experience?
11. What is your interpretation of the man in the tan suit whom Michael sees at
Francis’s funeral?
12. Discuss the role of music in Brother. Does it offer escape, or a sense of belonging,
or something else entirely?
13. Do you think Ruth was a good mother to Michael and Francis while they were
growing up? Why or why not? How do Ruth’s attitudes and aspirations differ
from those of her sons? When in the novel do parents and children appear distant
from each other, and when do they connect?
14. Why do you think Ruth has a breakdown towards the end of the novel? How does
this alter her and Michael’s relationship, and what effect does it have on her
healing process?
15. Discuss Francis’s interaction with the police immediately before he gets shot.
Could the tragedy have been prevented? Are there events or interactions earlier in
the novel that you think may have contributed to Francis’s refusal to sit down
when the officer asks him to? If so, what and how?
16. In addition to some instances of overt racism, Michael and Francis each encounter
subtle prejudices throughout the novel. Give examples of this. Do you think the
overt racism or the subtle prejudice has more of a negative impact on them? Why?
Suggested reading
Soucouyant by David Chariandy, I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My
Daughter by David Chariandy, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Between the World
and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, What We All Long For by Dionne Brand, Heavy by Kiese
Laymon, Don’t Call Us Dead, by Danez Smith, Swing Time by Zadie Smith, Dear
Martin by Nic Stone, Moonlight (film) by Barry Jenkins
David Chariandy grew up in Toronto and lives and teaches in Vancouver. He is the
author of the novels Soucouyant and Brother, winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction
Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Toronto Book Award; as well as the
nonfiction work I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter.

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Brother

About this book

2. Did you enjoy Chariandy’s narrative technique of alternating between a present-

7. Michael mentions the notion of “complicated grief” in relation to his mother.

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