Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel was first published in 1992 to incredible international acclaim. Shortly afterwards it was made into a major film, one that brought Ondaatje's beautiful, harrowing love story to millions of people.Set in the chaotic months that followed the end of the Second World War, The English Patient focuses on a small band of stunned survivors as they try to come to terms with its devastating effects. These four characters, thrown together by chance, have stories of wonder and horror to tell each other. And as these stories are narrated and played out, Ondaatje creates with spectacular brilliance the adventure, romance and pain of life itself. 'No novel published this year in Britain, or anywhere else, matches The English Patient for either lyricism, narrative impact or quality . . . In descriptive prose of spectacular beauty, Ondaatje invents a desert world which is both physical and imaginative. This is one of the few truly great post-war novels'IRISH TIMES