Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient
“Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize–winning best seller lyrically portrays the convergence of four damaged lives in a bomb-riddled Italian villa in the last days of the war. Hana, the grieving nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the emotionally detached Indian sapper, Kip – each is haunted in different ways by the riddle of the man they know only as the English patient, a nameless burn victim who lies swathed in bandages in an upstairs room. It is this man’s incandescent memories – of the bleak North African desert, of explorers’ caves and Bedouin tribesmen, of forbidden love, and of annihilating anger – that illuminate the story, and the consequences of the mysteries they reveal radiate outward in shock waves that leave all the characters forever changed.” – from the Everyman’s Library edition
“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
Schedule of Meetings
- Monday, January 9th, 7 p.m., first floor Conference Room of the Warner Building
- Monday, January 23rd, 7 p.m., first floor Conference Room of the Warner Building
Book Availability
Copies of The English Patient are now available at Accent on Books (828-252-6255), on Merrimon Avenue, at discounted price, thanks to parishioner Lewis Sorrells.
How can I find out more?
Please visit the Book Group website at: http://allsoulsconnection.org/groups/all-souls-book-group, or our page at the Center for Spiritual Resources site: http://thecsr.org/all-souls-book-group-resources
The All Souls Book Group is the nucleus of the Kay Falk Literary Project, which is centered at the Cathedral as part of its teaching mission.
For more information, please contact Emilie White at etwhite8@charter.net.