Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Description
The Booker Prize-winning novel, now a critically acclaimed major motion picture, starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe and Kristin Scott Thomas. With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminates this book like flashes of heat lightening.
Subjects
Original publication date
1992
Media reviews
Ondaatje gibt jedem Charakter die Möglichkeit, sich dem Leser zu präsentieren und die ganz eigene Geschichte zu erzählen. Dabei ergreift er nicht Partei, sondern lässt die Figuren ganz einfach aus ihrem Blickwinkel erzählen. Die Schnittstelle, die sie verbinden, werden durch die Orte, an denen
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sie sich aufgehalten haben, definiert und dadurch geradezu greifbar. Zufälligkeiten scheinen ursächlich zu sein, dass die Personen in Kontakt treten und wieder voneinander scheiden. Die Schwierigkeit, jeder Figur ihren Platz innerhalb dieser Geschichte zuzuweisen, ohne den Faden zu verlieren, bewältigt Ondaatje meisterhaft. Show Less
Where was Rebecca shot?
... the plane must have been drying out under its tarpaulin in the desert for eight years. It is entirely covered with sand. Almasy `digs' it out : with what? ... Having shifted tons of sand ... he moves, single-handed, the plane out on to the level, so it can take off. How, single-handed, does he
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`swing the prop'? ... sand would have penetrated moving parts of the machinery and would have to be meticulously dusted out. ... Almasy merely pours in his can of petrol -- and the engine starts! Show Less
It is a complex and confusing novel whose readers might easily want to consult the index simply to untangle the threads of the plot ... to clarify events that had another meaning ... in an earlier context.
Una vez oí a una mujer africana decir que no se podía describir África, que África solo se entiende si se ha vivido allí. Hace años ya de aquel momento y, sin embargo, esas palabras se me han quedado grabadas y las recuerdo con frecuencia. Por ejemplo, me han venido a la memoria al leer El
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paciente inglés, de Michael Ondaatje, y no solo porque hable de lo que supone atravesar el desierto de Libia, algo inimaginable para nuestras cabezas acostumbradas a vidas sencillas, sino porque además transmite el peso de la guerra, un hecho también inconcebible para los que siempre hemos vivido en paz. Show Less
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 1992)
Governor General's Literary Award (Finalist — 1992)
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Winner — 1993)
BAFTA Award (Winner — Best Adapted Screenplay — 1996)
Golden Man Booker Prize (Winner)
Trillium Book Award (Winner — English — 1993)
Notable Books List (1993)
The Big Jubilee Read (1992 — 1992-2001)