"The Brothers" by Masha Gessen

I read this book when I was about twenty years old, so around a year after the book was actually released and honestly, this book scared the living daylights out of me. I don’t think I slept well for a long time after reading it and yet, when it was finished, I read it over and over - trying to make myself believe that it wasn’t real. But the only problem is that all of it was real. It all actually happened and not a single detail had been missed out. This is a book that is basically our generation’s answer to Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” and like Capote’s novel it takes two people from a very human background and sticks them in a situation that endangers them, turns them inside out and indoctrinates them. I have read this book so many times and I think that it should be required reading in high schools all over the world. It is one of those books that teaches you about how people can just turn bad because of their struggles, can commit crimes because of their problems and can hurt others purely out of the want to cause chaos and dread in every single person around them. This book is all about the two brothers that committed the horrifying Boston Marathon Bombings in April, 2013. I remember seeing it on the news and really, I don’t think I had ever seen such a horrific sight on TV since the Twin Towers came down. To think that the living brother is only a year or so older than me makes me want to be sick. He is and will always be an absolutely terrible human being.

Masha Gessen is one of my heroes because her books have always got this intense fictional feel to them. You almost forget that this stuff actually happened because you become so invested in the story. Especially with “The Brothers” - I felt like I was becoming invested in the whole world of the migrations, the vision of America and the movements back and forth from different countries that looked rather shady. It’s only when I really sat down to think about it that I realised that I knew exactly how this book was going to end; it would end in violence, in terror and in pain. I remember reading it the first time and I had to take strong breaths between various chapters because it was just a lot to take in at the time. I felt consumed by reading about these two boys who had come from a family in which struggles did happen, migrations took place and various people were moved about and others were religiously indoctrinated and yet, even though they had God within them, they wanted to commit such a violent act. The book doesn’t go into too much depth about the religious views of the brothers, but the fact that they were just people like you and me scared me to death enough. It was a very ‘In Cold Blood’ approach to the situation.

When it came to the brother who now sits on death row (I won’t be using names here because their names don’t deserve to be in my article) it explains how he was a student, had friends and was one of your regular everyday people in college. He wasn’t particularly bright, he wasn’t particularly stupid, he wasn’t really anything that stood out. But, when his brother got involved with something, he got involved too and when it came to running away - well let’s just say he wasn’t very good at it and I found it hilarious that he even tried.

Gessen’s writing explains the manhunt for the living brother and even though it was long and extensive, ultimately it didn’t actually take that long in comparison to other manhunts. But the way in which Gessen writes about the bombing and the aftermath is basically one of the greatest non-fiction things you’ll ever read. It is raw and bubbling with reality. Even though you seem to forget it actually happened, there is clearly something to be admired in the way she makes very real emotions and atmosphere of the situation.