Anil's Ghost

Michael Ondaatje

Jul 2000 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Alan Cumming

About this audiobook

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.

Ratings and reviews

an interesting story. a bit unfocused and meandering with little clear plot. indulgent writing that's written like poetry.

About the author

Michael Ondaatje is the author of three previous novels, a memoir and eleven books of poetry. His most recent novel, The English Patient, won the Booker Prize. Born in Sri Lanka, he moved to Canada in 1962 and now lives in Toronto.