THE
ENGLISH
PATIENT
a novel by
MICHAEL
ONDAATJE
Michael Ondaatje is a novelist and poet who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of In the Skin of a Lion,
Coming Through Slaughter, and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; three collections of poems, The
Cinnamon Peeler, Secular Love, and There’s a Trick, with a Knife I’m Learning to Do; and a memoir,
Running in the Family. He received the Booker Prize for The English Patient.
In memory of
Skip and Mary Dickinson
For Quintin and Griffin
And for Louise Dennys,
with thanks
‘Most of you, I am sure, remember the tragic circumstances of the death of Geoffrey Clifton at Gilf Kebir,
followed later by the disappearance of his wife, Katharine Clifton, which took place during the 1939 desert
expedition in search of Zerzura.
“I cannot begin this meeting`````