Pacientul englez (Top 10)

Four people scarred by war share a former monastery in Italy. The Second World War is drawing to a close. Hana, a nurse, feels numb after tending dying soldiers. Caravaggio is a thief and spy who has suffered mutilation. He now depends on morphine. Kip, a Sikh bomb disposal expert, risks death each day.

Hana also cares for a man whose burns hide his identity. Those around him think he is English. He tells a love story that spans desert journeys and war. His account haunts his listeners and changes their lives. Michael Ondaatje’s novel brings together love, loss, and wartime danger. Its episodes include vanished planes, spying, and archaeological finds in the Sahara.

This edition belongs to the Top 10+ series. Monica Wolfe-Murray translated the text from English and supplied notes. The novel won the Booker Prize, then the 2018 Golden Man Booker Prize. The latter marked the leading Booker winner from fifty years. Anthony Minghella directed its 1996 film adaptation. Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, and Kristin Scott Thomas starred. The film won nine Oscars.

Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka in 1943. He later moved to Britain, then Canada. He studied at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University in Kingston. In 1971, he became a professor at York University in Toronto. His work also includes poetry and memoir.