Francis shows Michael how to safely climb the hydro pole and reveals the sweeping view of the city from the top.

Michael convinces Aisha to visit him after she returns to Scarborough for her father's funeral.

Ruth raises Francis and Michael alone in Scarborough's Park neighborhood after their father abandons the family.

Francis is transferred out of the academic school program and placed into basic education.

A neighborhood shooting leads to Francis and Michael being handcuffed and nearly arrested by police.

Francis moves out of the family apartment, deepening the rift between him and his mother Ruth.

Francis brings Michael to their father's address, but their father refuses to open the door and meet them.

Jelly arrives at Michael's home with nowhere to stay, and Ruth invites him to sleep over.

Jelly performs a DJ audition for rap music producers, who appear completely unimpressed by his talent.

Francis storms back into the audition venue to advocate for Jelly and gets into a fistfight with the bouncers.

Ruth is struck by a car while on a walk with Jelly and is rushed to the hospital.

Francis confronts police officers targeting his friends at Desirea's barbershop and is shot and killed by an officer.

Michael and Ruth attend Francis's funeral while Jelly, arrested at the scene of the shooting, remains in jail.

Police conclude their questioning of Michael and officially rule that Francis's shooting was lawful.

Jelly plays music at Michael's home and Ruth asks him to turn the volume louder, signaling hope for healing.

Brother follows Michael and his older brother Francis as they grow up in Scarborough, raised alone by their mother Ruth after their father abandons the family. Francis loses his academic footing, gets expelled, and drifts closer to street life, creating tension at home that ultimately drives him out. After Francis discovers their father's address and is rejected at his door, the brothers struggle to build identity without a male role model. On the night of a DJ audition for his best friend Jelly, Francis clashes with bouncers and later with police at their barbershop hangout Desirea's, where he is shot and killed. The novel then traces the decade of grief that paralyzes both Michael and Ruth, until Aisha's return and Jelly's reappearance finally crack open the possibility of healing.

The headline story of two brothers, a community, and a tragedy

Francis is expelled from high school after cursing at a teacher, ending his formal education entirely.

Michael seeks out Aisha the morning after the neighborhood shooting to make clear he played no part in it.

Aisha earns a prestigious university scholarship, becoming a rare success story who leaves Scarborough behind.

Ruth's doctor formally diagnoses her with complicated grief, which has kept her trapped in the past for years.

Aisha tells Michael and Ruth about visiting Trinidad, sharing stories of the culture they have long been disconnected from.

Michael's boss Manny warns him that continuing to associate with Jelly will cost him his job.

Police arrive at Michael's home in response to a noise complaint during the gathering Aisha has organized.

Aisha shows Michael a flyer advertising a djeli, describing it as a gathering of cultural artists and storytellers.

Francis regularly brings Michael to Desirea's barbershop, where Michael first absorbs Black music and male culture.

Desirea's barbershop is transformed into a vibrant club where the neighborhood gathers to celebrate its cultural heritage.

Police raid Desirea's barbershop and harass the guests but find no evidence of wrongdoing and make no arrests.

Francis grabs the blade of a drawn knife with his bare hands to prove he will not be intimidated by a neighborhood kid.

An audition judge calls Francis and Jelly thugs and threatens to call the police on them after the brawl.

Ruth is released from the hospital and Michael finds Aisha and Jelly waiting outside to support them.

Jelly prepares food at Michael's home while Aisha makes plans for wheelchair walks with Ruth, the community stepping in.

Alongside the central tragedy, Brother is built from a web of smaller but significant moments that reveal how Michael, Francis, and their community live and survive. Francis's expulsion from high school and Aisha's escape on a scholarship highlight the narrow and unequal paths available to young people in Scarborough. The barbershop Desirea's emerges as a vital cultural space where Michael first absorbs Black music and identity, before police raids repeatedly violate that safe haven. In the present, Jelly's return to Michael's life creates ripples of discomfort and danger, from Michael's boss threatening his job to police arriving at a neighborhood gathering. The pool closes with Ruth's release from hospital and the quiet, stubborn act of community that greets her at the door.

The community, culture, and quiet moments that shaped Michael's world

Michael and Francis begin to understand that Canadian society perceives Black boys as dangerous criminals.

Aisha shocks Michael by throwing a rock through a police car window, a rare and startling act of defiance.

Francis discovers where their father is living, giving the brothers a chance to finally confront his absence.

Ruth slaps Michael across the face when he tries to interfere with her sharing Francis's photographs with Jelly and a guest.

Michael and Aisha become sexually intimate for the first time during the summer after finishing high school.

At Desirea's, Michael hears the music of his parents' generation for the first time and feels a connection to his heritage.

Francis tearfully apologizes to Ruth, who wipes the blood from his face with her nightgown after the audition brawl.

Ruth takes Francis and Michael to Trinidad as children, where they are enveloped by their extended family for the first time.

At a church service in Trinidad, Francis is visibly moved to tears by the music and culture he finally recognizes as his own.

Michael and Francis admire a vast star-filled night sky in Trinidad, a sight impossible in their Scarborough neighborhood.

Three white boys assault Ruth and hurl racist and misogynist slurs at her and her sons at a movie theater.

Francis tells his friends at Desirea's that he has concluded they are all losers and that Jelly never had a real chance.

Michael sees a young hospitalized boy who climbed onto a roof with his brother just to get a better view, mirroring his own past.

Doctors reveal Ruth had alcohol in her system when struck by the car and say her mental health concerns them far more than her fracture.

Michael stops trying to push Aisha and Jelly away and allows them to remain present in his home and his mother's life.

This pool traces the pivotal moments where characters confront the world around them and are changed by it. Early turning points include the brothers' dawning awareness of racism, their painful rejection by their father, and Aisha's surprising act of defiance at a police car. The narrative's emotional core builds through Francis's deepening bond with Jelly, his devastating sense that Black men from the Park will always be shut out, and the night his passion finally costs him his life. In the aftermath, Michael uses his mother's grief as a shield for his own, a dynamic the novel gradually dismantles through Aisha's return, Ruth's accident, and the medical revelation that forces both of them to stop hiding. The pool ends where healing begins.