Anil's Ghost

By: Michael Ondaatje

Narrated by: Alan Cumming

With his first novel since the internationally acclaimed The English Patient, Booker Prize—winning author Michael Ondaatje gives us a work displaying all the richness of imagery and language and the piercing emotional truth that we have come to know as the hallmarks of his writing.

Anil’s Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of civil war. Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and America, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity, about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past–a story propelled by a riveting mystery. Unfolding against the deeply evocative background of Sri Lanka’s landscape and ancient civilization, Anil’s Ghost is a literary spellbinder–Michael Ondaatje’s most powerful novel yet.©2000 Michael Ondaatje; (P)2000 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Gorgeously exotic…. As he did in The English Patient, Mr. Ondaatje is able to commingle anguish and seductiveness in fierce, unexpected ways.”–The New York Times

Ethereal novel elegantly read.

This is not an easy story to follow but it is well worth listening to.

Excellent

He paints vivid pictures, the best you can hope for from a writer or musician

unlikely poetry

The subject matter of this book, forensic anthropology, seems an unlikley one for poetic imagery. Yet Andaatje's gift as a writer seems to be the ability to infuse a book with life's harsh realities side by side with glints of light and vitality. It takes the reader to places far away and hard to imagine. But once introduced to the place and the people all make perfect sense.

Adored this book.

Hard to follow – yes, but, stunningly beautiful. I am a big fan of Michael Ondaatje.

Hypnotic, chilling

This was my third attempt to listen to Anil's Ghost. Cumming's voice has a lulling quality and so, with earlier attempts, I would often fall asleep or drift away and lose large chunks of the story. Not this time. I hung on every word and when I found myself disoriented by a sudden shift in time or perspective, I was patient and well rewarded. It's a tragic story of man's inhumanity to man and the few people that try to rise above it, seeking justice for the dead or trying to save as many lives as possible. It's also a journey into a country I've never visited-Sri Lanka-and its people and culture, its recent horrifying history. It's a meditative novel and slips in and among various characters, weaving a tapestry of lives and deaths.