Anil's Ghost
Adam Elder (Author photograph) New York: Vintage International, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 2001. First Vintage International Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Trade paperback. [8], 311, [1] pages. Autographed copy sticker on front cover. Signed by the author on the title page. Minor wear and soiling noted. 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 is a fictional work set during this political time and historical moment. And while there existed organizations similar to those in this story, and similar events took place, the characters and incidents in the novel are invented. Today the war in Sri Lanka continues in a different form. Anil's Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the modern world 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. Philip Michael Ondaatje CC FRSL (born 12 September 1943), is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Booker Prize, and the Prix Médicis étranger. Ondaatje is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing him as one of Canada's most renowned living authors. Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing The Dainty Monsters, and then in 1970 the critically acclaimed The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. However, he is more recently recognized for his nationally and internationally successful novel The English Patient (1992), which was adapted into a film in 1996. In 2018, Ondaatje won the Golden Man Booker Prize for The English Patient. In addition to his literary writing, Ondaatje has been an important force in "fostering new Canadian writing" with two decades commitment to Coach House Press (around 1970–90), and his editorial credits on Canadian literary projects like the journal Brick, and the Long Poem Anthology (1979), among others. Anil's Ghost (2000) was the winner of the 2000 Giller Prize, the Prix Médicis, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the 2001 Irish Times International Fiction Prize and Canada's Governor General's Award. Derived from a Kirkus review: The aftershocks of the recent bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, and of doomed efforts to name and remember that afflicted country's `disappeared,' are explored with commanding intensity in this striking work. Ondaatje analyzes the effects of political catastrophe on several deeply involved characters brought randomly—and explosively—together. Anil Tissera, a `forensic anthropologist' who had emigrated to America and now works for an international Human Rights organization, returns to her homeland to participate in an investigation into suspected mass political murders. She is assigned to work with Sarath Diyasena—a phlegmatic archaeologist whose own political affiliations remain cloudy—and is soon involved in the process of `restoring' skeletons officially declared `prehistoric remains' (though it's obvious they're the remains of recently deceased victims of torture). Ondaatje's plot is mined with ingenious surprises leading to violent climactic pages. Impressive and often fascinating. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Sri Lanka, Fiction, Anil Tissera, Forensic Anthropologist, Human Rights, Murder, Sarath Diyasena, Archaeologist
ISBN: 0375724370
[Book #82344]
Price: $135.00