The Last Brother: A Novel (Lannan Translation Selection (Graywolf Paperback)) [Paperback]

Nathacha Appanah (Author), Geoffrey Strachan (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 2011 | Series: Lannan Translation Selection (Graywolf Paperback)

As 1944 comes to a close, nine-year-old Raj is unaware of the war devastating the rest of the world. He lives in Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean, where survival is a daily struggle for his family. When a brutal beating lands Raj in the hospital of the prison camp where his father is a guard, he meets a mysterious boy his own age. David is a refugee, one of a group of Jewish exiles whose harrowing journey took them from Nazioccupied Europe to Palestine, where they were refused entry and sent on to indefinite detainment in Mauritius.

A massive storm on the island leads to a breach of security at the camp, and David escapes, with Raj’s help. After a few days spent hiding from Raj’s cruel father, the two young boys flee into the forest. Danger, hunger, and malaria turn what at first seems like an adventure to Raj into an increasingly desperate mission.

This unforgettable and deeply moving novel sheds light on a fascinating and unexplored corner of World War II history, and establishes Nathacha Appanah as a significant international voice.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In Appanah's impressive novel, two young boys living in Mauritius during WWII secretly become friends. Eight-year-old Raj and his two brothers live on a sugar plantation where their parents eke out a marginal living. But Raj's brothers are swept away in a torrent, and the family moves to the heart of the island, where his abusive father finds work as a prison guard, overseeing European and Jewish inmates exiled from Palestine by the British to Mauritius, where they await the war's end. Here Raj meets David, a detainee close to his age, and feels an immediate kinship with him despite Raj's father's warnings that the prison holds dangerous men. When Raj's father beats him so severely that he's admitted to the prison infirmary, his friendship with David deepens; the love Raj can no longer give his brothers he offers to David. Weather once again intervenes in Raj's life when a cyclone hits the island, and he and David attempt to outrun their fates together. Appanah's descriptions are meticulous, and the heartbreakingly endearing Raj makes for an unforgettable protagonist. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Nine-year-old Raj lives with his mother and abusive father in a small village on the island of Mauritius in the 1940s. When his older and younger brothers are tragically killed, the family moves halfway across the island to Beau-Bassin, where Raj’s father finds work as a prison guard, overseeing European Jewish exiles interned by the British after being turned away from Palestine. When Raj is admitted to the prison’s hospital after a severe beating by his father, he meets one of the orphaned refugees, David. Though the two couldn’t be more different, they forge an immediate connection. As their relationship grows, a violent cyclone rocks the village and, with Raj’s help, David is able to escape. As suspicion surrounding Raj’s family begins to swell, the two boys retreat to the surrounding forest, struggling to survive as their harrowing journey becomes increasingly dangerous. Appanah’s intense tale finely captures the deep connection between the imperiled Raj and David as well as Raj’s desperate attempts, later in life, to make sense of these tragic events and extraordinary circumstances. --Leah Strauss

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press; Reprint edition (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555975755
• ISBN-13: 978-1555975753
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #187,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Two children of misfortune thrown together by a miracle, by an accident" February 4, 2011

By Michael J. Ettner

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Set on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in the years 1944-45, "The Last Brother" portrays harrowing events in the life of Raj, a nine-year-old middle son of an illiterate and impoverished native family. The book is narrated by the now elderly Raj, who, even sixty years later, is driven by an intense search for understanding. His central memory is of a childhood friendship, brief but golden, with a ten-year-old orphan named David, one of 1,584 Jewish refugees interned at the island's Beau-Bassin prison during War War II. The novel traces Raj's path through loss, grief, guilt and -- ultimately -- forgiveness.

Nathacha Appanah's prose is simple and clear. The translation from the French (by Geoffrey Strachan) is beautiful. I was mightily impressed with Appanah's unflashy but sure command of story-telling. As the story unfolds she adopts a captivating pace and rhythm. The book never flags. Appanah has an intuitive sense of when the reader needs a respite from its dark material (deaths, squalor, cruel abuse from an alcoholic father). And so she pulls us away, from time to time, to land in the present day, where the ever-seeking Raj, by now a retired teacher, quietly reflects on the lessons of six decades ago.

Each reader will find treasures in "The Last Brother." One element that charmed me was how the unshakable love of Raj's mother is linked to her religious instincts, which are grounded in animism. The power and magic that suffuses the natural world is a recurring motif. It inspires Appanah to offer striking descriptions of the flora and fauna of Mauritius. This includes the appearance of an enchanted red parakeet, a significant symbol that, you may notice, has found its way onto the book's cover illustration. Raj is his mother's son, and he too seeks patterns and purpose in an often unforgiving world. It is to Appanah's credit that she firmly convinces the reader that this nine-year-old boy has a perspective on the world -- and most importantly a view of love and duty -- that is worthy of our attention.

"The Last Brother" is a coming-of-age story, a survivor's narrative, and a belated history lesson. A seemingly small-scaled tale, it bursts open to reveal an emotional largeness that will earn the tears of many readers.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book I Have Ever Read February 23, 2011

By Bonnie Brody TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Usually I review books shortly after reading them. However, Nathacha Appanah's book, The Last Brother, sat so deeply in my heart that I had to wait several days before reviewing it. I needed it to come closer to the surface, closer to that word place where emotions can be translated into language.

Nathacha Appanah is a French-Mauritian of Indian origin, born in Maruitius and now living in France. The Last Brother won the Prix de la FNAC 2007 and the Grand Prix des lecteurs de L'Express 2008. Geoffrey Strachan has beautifully translated it into English. It reads as if it is in its native language, a feat very rare for translations.

The novel is set in Mauritius during 1944-1945. Mauritius is an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The book is about terror and adversity, about hope and exaltation. It is about the little known fact that 1500 Jews were sent from Palestine to Maritius for four years because they did not have the right papers when they landed in Palestine and were viewed by the British as illegal aliens. They are placed in a facility that was somewhere between a concentration camp and prison. One hundred twenty-seven Jews did not survive the four years of imprisonment. It is also the story of a deep and beautiful friendship of two young boys. Raj is nine years old and from Mauritius. David is ten years old and is a Jewish prisoner. He is an orphan from Prague. The story is narrated by Raj when he is seventy years old. He wants to tell his story as precisely as possible.

Raj comes from an extraordinarily impoverished background. He lives with his parents and two brothers in a hut in Mapou. Living conditions were so unsanitary that if a child got sick, it was assumed that he would die. "As a child I was a weakling. Of the three brothers I was the one who was the most fearful, the one who was always somewhat sickly, the one they protected from the dust, the rain, the mud. And yet it was I who survived at Mapou." His father is a drunk who enjoys physically abusing Raj, his mother and brothers. "If we did not sing the way he wanted he would hit us." Raj is the child picked to be educated. At school, he learns that not all fathers are like his and that not all children live in mud huts.

Raj and his brothers are very close. One day as they are walking, a terrible storm comes suddenly and both of Raj's brothers are killed. The family leaves Mapou to resettle in Beau-Bassin where Raj's father has gotten a job as a guard in the prison. One day, Raj's father beats him so brutally that he ends up in the prison hospital with "a broken nose, cracked ribs, bruises, a blue pulp instead of a mouth." It is in the hospital that his friendship with David is forged. David suffers from malaria and dysentery. They have little in the way of a common language but Raj knows some French from school and David speaks French. They slowly and very carefully communicate. Raj thinks that Prague is a village somewhere between Mapou and the prison. He does not know what a Jew is. "I do not know if I ought to be ashamed to say this but that was how it was: I did not know there was a world war on that had lasted for four years and when David asked me at the hospital if I was Jewish I did not know what he meant." Gradually, Raj learns what is going on in the prison and his friendship with David gets closer and closer.

Serendipitously, Raj finds a way to loosen a piece of barbed wire in the ground and after a deadly cyclone, he manages to get David out of the prison and they start on an impossible journey to freedom. This part of the book has some of the most beautiful scenes I have ever read. Ms. Appanah's language is spell-binding. It is poetic, lyrical, and sensitive. She takes the reader to places that language rarely takes us - those deep places in the soul where there is only bare and beautiful emotion but no words to describe things.

This book is filled with antithetical meanings. Where there is despair there is happiness; where there is fear there is courage; where there are prisons there is freedom; where there is regret there is hope. On the surface, this is a very sad book, but at its core there is profound beauty and exaltation. It is the story of two `kings', Raj and David, sharing their kingdom of childhood.

This is the best book I have ever read. It left me speechless and uprooted. I had to re-read it in order to write this review and I know I will read it again many times. It is a book I will recommend to my friends and those who love to read. Thank you, Ms. Appanah, for this remarkable gift.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking artistry February 17, 2011

By Julie A. Smith

Format:Paperback

This book tells the story of Raj, the son of an alcoholic and abusive father, and his friendship with David, a Jewish boy who lives at the prison where Raj's father works. We read the sad story about how Raj became the Last Brother of three at the age of 9 or 10 (I didn't quite figure that one out, or maybe I didn't take note as well as I should have), and his family's trek from Mapou, where his father worked in the fields, to Beau-Bassin, where his father now works in a prison.

Raj is a solitary boy, quite removed from current events (he doesn't know there's a war going on, he didn't know what "Jewish" meant), and this story is being told at a 60-year-remove by him as an old man of 70. He journeys to the prison to take lunch to his father and stays hidden in the brush beyond the gate to see what happens. What he sees and doesn't understand are a bunch of skeletal white people, seemingly unused to the sun, who seem afraid to move or to even grab at the plentiful fruit on the trees around them in the prison courtyard. Are these the dAngerous ones, rUnaways, rObbers, and bAd mEn his father tells him live at the prison? If so, why are there children with them?

His attention is taken with one of the boys, and he imagines that the boy comes to the fence and sees him. Afterward, he makes an almost daily trek to the shrubs to see the prisoners come out for their daily break and to imagine the little boy on the other side of the fence as his friend.

After a particularly brutal beating at the hands of his father, his father takes him to the prison hospital for treatment, stating the usual mantra of abusive parents, "He fell". The little boy on the other side of the fence, David, is also in the hospital for an illness. They become fast friends, and Raj learns that both of David's parents have died. He never really learns how, and suddenly, Raj is healed and taken away from the hospital without really being able to say goodbye.

A sudden cyclone affords the opportunity for David to escape the prison fence, and the boys end up journeying through the forest on their way back to Mapou, where Raj believes that he can maybe find his older brother Anil alive, since his body was never discovered.

I wish a review could convey the artistry of this story - the unfolding of an uneven friendship, the guilt an old man feels wishing he had really known more and understood what David must have gone through, the love of a son for his steadfast mother, and the hardscrabble existence Raj and his reduced family went through.

I learned about yet another period of history that I had not been aware of before, and felt Raj's loneliness and isolation as a young child. The fact that he triumphs over his background and manages to live a solid, fulfilling, loved life is a testimony to the steel within the human spirit.

This book loses nothing in the translation, and I highly recommend it as an absorbing read.

QUOTES:

All the men in the camp drank. I have no idea where or how they bought this drink because no one had enough to eat.

I think that if I had been an ordinary boy with no history - by this I mean a boy who had not spent the first years of his life in a ramshackle hut, who had not lost both his brothers on the same day, a boy who had friends to play with and did not hide in holes dug in the bare earth or on the branches of trees, a boy who did not talk to himself for hours on end, a boy who, when he shut his eyes at night, saw something other than his little brother's body trapped beneath a rock - I would not have stayed there long, this bizarre prison would have bored me. But I was Raj and I liked dark corners and places where nothing stirred.

It was for moments like this that there should be a word to tell what one becomes forever when one loses a brother, a son.