The English Patient - Softcover

Ondaatje, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747572593 ISBN 13: 9780747572596

Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2004

Synopsis

The final curtain is closing on the Second World War, and Hana, a nurse, stays behind in an abandoned Italian villa to tend to her only remaining patient. Rescued by Bedouins from a burning plane, he is English, anonymous, damaged beyond recognition and haunted by his memories of passion and betrayal. The only clue Hana has to his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes describing a painful and ultimately tragic love affair.

About this title

Review:

Haunting and harrowing, as beautiful as it is disturbing, The English Patient tells the story of the entanglement of four damaged lives in an Italian monastery as the second world war ends. The exhausted nurse, Hana; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burn victim who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of sheet lightning. In lyrical prose informed by a poetic consciousness, Michael Ondaatje weaves these characters together, pulls them tight, then unravels the threads with unsettling acumen.

A book that binds readers of great literature, The English Patient secured the Booker Prize for author Ondaatje. The poet and novelist has also written In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; two collections of poems, The Cinnamon Peeler and There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do; and a memoir, Running in the Family.

Review:

'Masterful...a rich and compelling work of fiction' -- Don DeLillo

'Ondaatje has now written the extraordinary novel we have been awaiting from him: The English Patient is a masterpiece' -- Financial Times

'One of the most innovative and liberating writers of our time' --Guardian

'The English Patient wears the triple crown: ot is profound, beautiful and heart-quickening' --Toni Morrison

'The best piece of fiction in English I've read in years' --Independent on Sunday

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0747572593
• ISBN 13: 9780747572596
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 321