Author: Michael Ondaatjee
Publisher: Picador India
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 311
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0330480774
Description
Unfolding against the ravishing background of Sri Lanka's landscape and ancient civilization, this novel is a compelling literary spellbinder - a timeless work of art and a revelatory journey.
In his first novel since The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje displays again the richness of imagery, the eerily beautiful language and the keen emotional sureness that are the hall marks of his writing.
The time is our own time. The place is Sri Lanka, the island nation off the southern tip of India. Formerly known as Ceylon, it has been for centuries a land steeped in cultural achievement and tradition. Now ravaged by civil war and divided against itself, the country is forced, abruptly, into the late twentieth century.
Into this maelstrom steps a young woman, Anil Tissera. Born in Sri Lanka, educated in America, she is a forensic anthropologist sent by an International human rights group to work with local officials, investigating the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island.
Bodies are discovered. Skeletons. And particularly one, nicknamed 'Sailor'. What follows is a story About love, about family, about identity and the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past.
COMMENT:
Ondaatje's novel satisfies one of the most exalted purposes of fiction: to illuminate the human condition through pity and terror. It may well be the capstone of his career. - Publishers Weekly