Brotherhood

Starred review from May 1, 2021

DEBUT In an unnamed African country, the North has been subsumed by the Brotherhood, an icily totalitarian group of Islamic fundamentalists who execute anyone they believe to have flouted the Qur'an--even killing all dogs, whom they declare to be satanic. The novel opens with the public execution of two young lovers whose mothers eventually reach out in tentative communication, but at its heart is a group of resisters who gather weekly at the Jambaar tavern. With tavern owner P�re Badji, they include Malamine, a doctor whose wife is beaten by the Brotherhood, plus scholars and hospital workers he knows. To bear witness to the Brotherhood's atrocities, they are preparing a journal, embodying a belief expressed throughout this critical debut, that language plays a key role in resistance to tyranny: "Probably the Brotherhood's greatest victory [was] making people believe that communication is futile, and that the Brotherhood can speak on their behalf." But what will happen if the journal is actually published? VERDICT Urgent and chilling reading from a multi-award-winning Senegalese author.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2021
After their children are shot to death for committing adultery, two women begin writing each other letters. They share their trials and the news from the city of Kalep, a strategic post in the north of the fictional country of Sumal, which has been taken over by a fundamentalist organization called the Brotherhood. While those watching when their children were killed did nothing to intervene, in a later incident, bystanders do come to the rescue of Ndey Joor Camara, a woman who was beaten nearly to death by a group of soldiers simply for leaving her head uncovered. That act goads Camara's husband, Malamine, and his fellow conspirators to put their plans for revealing the outrages perpetrated by the Brotherhood into action. As their written record of the crimes hits the streets, an uncertain future awaits those who dare to defy the power of the Brotherhood. Sarr pays moving tribute to the courage of everyday people with this examination of survival and sacrifice.

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Starred review from May 24, 2021
Senegalese writer Sarr’s harrowing English-language debut follows a fundamentalist Islamic organization and the ragtag group of intellectuals intent on challenging its religious orthodoxy. In Kalep, Sumal, a fictional North African desert town, a group called the Brotherhood has taken root. Backed by a powerful military force, the Brotherhood is led by police chief Abdel Karim, who rules with an iron fist, executing young lovers accused of adultery and ordering the vicious beating of an absentminded woman who forgets to shroud herself in a hijab. Within this repressive society, a group of intellectuals develops an underground political journal called Rambaaj that’s aimed at stoking resistance. But instead of fomenting opposition, the paper sows seeds of discord. Greed and backbiting ensue as the Brotherhood rewards citizens who turn in readers of Rambaaj and journalists ruminate on the moral responsibility of their ideas while a burgeoning backlash threatens to divide them. Meanwhile, the haughty Karim burns down a cultural jewel, a well-known Sumalese library, in an attempt to winnow out the resistance journalists. Haunting philosophical questions demonstrate Sarr’s powers, and his story succeeds in speaking to both the reader’s head and heart. This introduces a vital new voice to American readers.