Anil's ghost

In his first novel since The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje again displays the spellbinding richness of imagery and language and the piercing emotional truth that are the hallmarks of his writing. The time is our own time. The place is Sri Lanka, the island nation off the southern tip of India, a country formerly known as Ceylon that is steeped in centuries of cultural achievement and tradition - and forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of civil war and the condequences of a country divided against itself. Into this maelstrom steps a young woman , Anil Tissera, born in Sri Lanka, educated in America, a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to work with local officials to discover the source of the organised campaigns of murder engulfing the island. Bodies are discovered. Skeletons. And particularly one, nickanmed "Sailor". What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity and the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past. Unfolding against the ravishing background of Sri Lanka's landscape and ancient civlisation, Anil's Ghost is a compelling literary spellbinder, a timeless work of art and a revelatory journey.