The English Patient

Description

Michael Ondaatje lyrically portrays the convergence of four damaged lives in a bomb-riddled Italian villa in the last days of World War II. Hana, a Canadian nurse, exhausted by death, and grieving for her own dead father; the maimed thief-turned-Allied-agent, Caravaggio; Kip, the emotionally detached Indian sapper - each is haunted in different ways by the man they know only as the English patient, a nameless burn victim who lies in an upstairs room. His extraordinary knowledge and morphine-induced memories - of the North African desert, of explorers and tribes, of history and cartography; and also of forbidden love, suffering and betrayal - illuminate the story, and leave all the characters for ever changed.

Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka in 1943. In the 1950s he moved to England, and went to school in south London. In 1962 he emigrated to Canada, where he has lived ever since. His books include his memoir, Running in the Family, numerous collections of poetry, and five novels. Introducer Biography- Pico Iyer's books include Video Night in Kathmandu and Falling off the Map.

"A rare and spellbinding web of dreams." --"Time " "Sensuous, mysterious, rhapsodic . . . It transports the reader to another world." "--San Francisco Chronicle" "A rare and spellbinding web of dreams." --"Time" "Sensuous, mysterious, rhapsodic, it transports the reader to another world . . . . Ondaatje's most probing examination yet of the nature of identity." --"San Francisco Chronicle" "Mr. Ondaatje [is] one of North America's finest novelists . . . . The spell of his haunted villa remains with us, inviting us to reread passages for the pure pleasure of being there." --"Wall Street Journal" "From the Trade Paperback edition." "A rare and spellbinding web of dreams." --"Time""Sensuous, mysterious, rhapsodic, it transports the reader to another world . . . . Ondaatje's most probing examination yet of the nature of identity." --"San Francisco Chronicle""Mr. Ondaatje [is] one of North America's finest novelists . . . . The spell of his haunted villa remains with us, inviting us to reread passages for the pure pleasure of being there." --"Wall Street Journal" "From the Trade Paperback edition."