The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje📖

Summary of The English Patient

The novel “The English Patient” is set in an Italian villa in Fiesole during the Second World War, where four persons reside: a man who has been burned beyond recognition and is referred to as ‘the English patient’; his Canadian nurse, Hanna; an Indian Sikh named Kip; and a thief called Caravaggio. As the burned man gradually reveals details of his past, particularly a doomed love affair with a married woman during a desert expedition in North Africa, the lives of these four characters intertwine.

Reasons to read The English Patient

“The English Patient” won the Booker Prize in 1992 as well as the Golden Man Booker in 2018, a special award marking the 50th anniversary of the Booker Prize. The novel was adapted into an award-winning film in 1996 by Anthony Minghella, featuring Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, and William Dafoe. Other notable works by Canadian author Michael Ondaatje include “Coming Through Slaughter”, “In the Skin of a Lion”, and “Anil’s Ghost”. 

Setting: Fiesole (Italy) & Sahara (Egypt)

Book set in Italy (Fiesole – Villa/Chiesa San Girolamo, near Florence); and Egypt.

Original title: The English Patient

Year of publication: 1992

Nr of pages: 305