Dayo, Iseul, and Youssef live in the same family and were all born in the same year, 1990. They are not blood related, but adopted, all sharing the ubiquitous surname, Smith. Youssef narrates the story in an epistolary format. He has an imaginary ‘brother’ who can change shape at will and feeds on information.
Iman Salim raises the boys in his Staten Island Mosque and the relationship he had with the boys’ parents is kept secret. When Iman returns to Saudi Arabia, the boys travel with him. It is here they are caught in a world of terrorism and introduced to a futuristic city that is being built to surpass the West. Never feeling at home in the West, they are welcomed to this new world with open arms.
Khalid explores capitalism and the West’s oppression and dominance over the Middle East. The prose at times is sublime, the writing quite exquisite, but on more than one occasion I found myself scrambling for the dictionary.
There is no doubt that Brother Alive is beautifully written. It is not an easy read. At times the complexity can be overbearing, interrupting the flow of the story. If you are not careful it is easy to lose your way, especially in the second half of the book. At times it feels Khalid is overwriting and there is too much going on, with the plot losing cohesion.
Brilliant writing, but with a plot that can be hard to follow.
Reviewed by Neale Lucas
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