David Chariandy and DJ Agile on Brother
It’s been over a decade since David Chariandy’s first novel Soucouyant was published to critical acclaim.
His second novel Brother satisfies a craving among readers, and now its story can be seen in a new movie adaptation by filmmaker Clement Virgo.
Brother is a diamond of a novel. Chariandy’s time since his debut hasn’t been spent piling up pages but refining and compressing. You could read Brother, or listen to the audiobook, in one long evening (and once you start, you’re going to find it hard to stop). But it’s also notable in Canadian literature for being set almost entirely in the southeast of Scarborough, Toronto’s eastern suburb—a region of strip malls and spotty public transit, and a frequent target of downtowners’ casual derision. But the book’s most unusual feature exists outside of its physical and narrative bounds: there’s an accompanying Soundcloud mixtape.
Brother is a novel of mourning. It’s Michael’s story about his older brother Francis, and their mother, an immigrant from Trinidad who works tirelessly to provide for her boys. As the novel opens, Michael’s childhood friend Aisha has come to visit, stirring up memories of the old days, Francis, and the tragedy of his violent death.
We sat down with David Chariandy in 2017 on the day before Brother was awarded the prestigious Rogers Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize. Along for the ride was Agile, the Toronto hip hop producer & DJ who created the mix that captures the spirit and sound of the novel. We talked about growing up in the suburbs, the first music we ever bought, and how David finally wrote the novel that had been writing itself in his mind for the past decade.
It turns out, this book almost came to us much earlier: “When I was writing my first book, I started writing this book,” David says. “I always wanted to write about youths growing up in Scarborough being empowered by music.” Brother’s arrival represents a creative watershed for its author, who admits, “I’ve been thinking about this book for as long as I’ve been an adult.”
Hear the full, free-flowing conversation between author David Chariandy, DJ/Producer Agile, and Kobo’s head bookseller Nathan Maharaj here:
Hear author David Chariandy read a stirring excerpt from Brother:
Brother
An intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, tightly constructed novel, Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991.
Turntable photo by Andrew Leu on Unsplash
