On a Philadelphia street in 1992, Shanda McManus's brother Monir was killed in a drive-by shooting. Three decades later, still haunted by his murder, McManus traces her brother's life through their upbringing in North Philadelphia, Monir's teen fatherhood and stint in the U.S. Army to support his young sons, and finally, his participation in the drug trade. In Brother Epistles, a series of intimate letters, McManus writes as both sister and physician, blending social commentary, memory, and collective history to lament the fragility of Monir's life while demanding an American reckoning for the socioeconomic structures responsible for so many young Black men dying through homicide. A heartbreaking conversation between a sister and her brother, leavened with humor, family love, and unconquerable Black joy, Brother Epistles is a powerful meditation on Black identity, the criminalization of Black boys, and the devastating ripple effects of a tragic loss on the loved ones left behind.
 
"What if you could talk to your loved ones after their deaths? What if you could be honest and imperfect, revealing to them not only your deep well of grief and the full spectrum of emotions that come with it, but the intimate details of your life without them? In Brother Epistles, Shanda McManus shares a deeply moving series of letters written to her beloved younger brother Monir after his murder in 1992. Writing with tenderness and candor, McManus reflects on both the dramatic and everyday moments of her brother's short life, his tragic death, the life she's managed to build in the decades since, and the state of their family and the larger world Monir didn't live to see. From politics and pop culture to the haunting regrets and what-ifs we survivors know so well, McManus paints Monir, and readers, an indelible portrait of the grieving life. This is an extraordinary and extraordinarily courageous book."